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GREAT EDUCATORS 
OF THREE CENTURIES 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



>^ 



To My Colleagues and Friends 

IN the University of Missouri and 

THE Ohio State University 

and among the Schoolmen 

of Missouri and Ohio 



GREAT EDUCATORS 



OF 



THREE CENTURIES 

THEIR WORK 

AND ITS INFLUENCE ON MODERN EDUCATION 



BY 
FRANK PIERREPONT GRAVES, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

IN THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 

AUTHOR OF "A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THREE VOLUMES," ETC. 



'Nzta g0rk 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1912 

A I! rights reserved 



%' 



v^-^caV 



Copyright, xgia, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

Set up and electrotyped. Published January, igia. 



J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



©CI.A303798 



PREFACE 

It has now come to be understood that a series of essays 
upon the educational reformers cannot by any stretch 
of the imagination be termed a 'history of education.' 
The biographical and personal details must be subordi- 
nated and brought into perspective, and a suitable his- 
torical and philosophical connection given a work, before 
it can be so dignified. The present volume, therefore, 
is not intended to be a continuation of my History of 
Education before the Middle Ages and my treatment of 
the Middle Ages and the Transition to Modern Times. 
To a certain extent it duplicates material toward the 
end of the latter volume, and it largely anticipates my 
History of Education in Modern Times, but the nature 
and purpose of the present work are quite different. 

I have felt that an account of the life and work of the 
men who, during the past three centuries, have intro- 
duced various innovations and reforms into modern 
education might contain interest and value for many 
who woul(f never read a more comprehensive and unified 
production. I have, however, made some attempt as 
well to present the social setting of each reformer. 
Moreover, although the facts of biography are narrated 
somewhat at length, an effort has been made to elimi- 



viii PREFACETt 

nate everything that does not seefi to have some bear- 
ing upon the contributions of the educator under 
consideration or upon the spread and permanence of 
his work. Such a treatment, I venture to hope, will 
prove of service to the general reader and to the 
student of educational origins whose time is lim- 
ited. The volume may be used as a reference work, 
a reading circle book, or even as a text for classes that 
are not in condition to cope with the complexities of 
modern educational history. The worth of the book 
for any of these purposes has probably been heightened 
by a Hberal quotation from the sources in the body of 
the text and the addition of supplementary readings at 
the end of each chapter. 

This work is largely an outgrowth of my lectures be- 
fore extension classes, teachers' institutes, and other 
informal gatherings in the states of Missouri and Ohio. 
I have, no doubt, unconsciously received much help 
from those who have listened to me upon these occasions, 
and have made bold to dedicate the book to them. 
More direct assistance, however, has been received from 
my friends. Professors Jesse H. Coursault of the Univer- 
sity of Missouri, Arthur J. Jones of the University of 
Maine, and Edward O. Sisson of the University of 
Washington, and from my wife, Helen Wadsworth 

Graves. 

F. P. G. 

December 30, 191 1. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

. I. John Milton and his 'Academy' . . . . i 
* II. Francis Bacon and the Inductive Method 
III. Ratich and his Educational Claims . 

<^^IV. COMENIUS AND HIS GrEAT DIDACTIC 

. V. John Locke and Education as Discipline . 

VI. Francke and his Institutions 

VII. Rousseau and Naturalism in Education . 

>VIII. Basedow and the Philanthropinum 

X IX. Pestalozzi and Education as Development 

'^ X. Herb ART and Education as a Science 

J^XI. Froebel and the Kindergarten . 

XII. Lancaster and Bell, and the Monitorial System 237 

XIII. Horace Mann and the American Educational 

Revival 249 

XIV. Herbert Spencer and the Relative Value of 

Studies 274 



10 
20 

27 
52 
67 

77 
112 
122 
167 
194 



IX 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE 
CENTURIES 

CHAPTER I 

JOHN MILTON AND HIS 'ACADEMY' 

In the popular mind the name of John Milton (1608- Milton was a 
1674) is associated only with the great epic, Paradise andaschooi- 
Lost. Scholars and hterary men include a wider range weifasapoet 
of his poetry within their vision, and recognize a large and wrote a 
difference between the products of his youthful period Education. 
and those of his enriched maturity. But between these 
stages comes a period as a prose writer and pamphleteer, 
which, while little known even to the student of litera- 
ture, has made Milton one of the interesting figures in 
education. The great poet was a stanch Puritan, and, 
during this middle stage of his career, several vigorous 
pamphlets of protest fell from his pen. He wrote upon 
the freedom of the press, the tenure of kings, religious 
toleration, and against the episcopacy. At this time, 
also, he undertook as part of his reforms to contribute 
to educational theory and to the improvement of the 
schools themselves. He conducted a boarding school 
throughout his thirties, and the Tractate of Education 



2 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

(1644) is an outgrowth of his practical experience as a 
schoolmaster. 



His educa- 
tional posi- 
tion is that of 
'humanistic' 
and ' social 
realism/ 
which pre- 
pared the 
way for 
'sense real- 
ism.* 



Milton's Opposition to the Formal Humanism 

Although he came somewhat later in the history 
of education, Milton is to be classed among those 
'innovators' ^ who were endeavoring to introduce a 
broader humanism in the place of the narrow 'Cicero- 
nianism' into which the educational product of the 
Renaissance had hardened. Instead of the restriction 
to words and set forms, they advocated a study of 
the ideas, or 'real things,' of which the words were the 
symbols. This emphasis upon the content of the clas- 
sics, which has usually been known as 'humanistic' 
realism, is especially noticeable in Milton. With it often 
went the study of social and physical phenomena, in 
order to throw light upon the meaning of the passages 
under consideration. There seems also to have been 
an attempt to adapt education to actual living in a real 
world and to prepare young people for the concrete duties 
of life, and it was usually suggested that the breadth of 
view necessary for this could be obtained best through 

1 Other innovators were Rabelais, Montaigne, Mulcaster, etc. See 
Graves, History of Education during the Transition, Chap. XVII. 
Because of the nature of his educational position, Milton is treated here 
before Bacon, Ratich, and Comenius, although he follows them in point 
of time. 



JOHN MILTON AND HIS 'ACADEMY' 3 

travel under the care of a tutor or by residence in a for- 
eign school. This latter tendency, which appears to 
some extent in Milton's Tractate, may be called ' social ' 
realism. However, while one element or the other may 
seem to be more prominent in a certain treatise, these 
two phases of education are largely bound up in each 
other, and both tendencies are evident in most re- 
formers of the times. They seem to be but two sides 
of the same thing and to constitute together a natural 
bridge from the humanism of the later Renaissance to 
the 'sense realism' of the seventeenth century. 

The Tractate of Education is an admirable illustration The Tractate 
of this broader humanism. While a remarkable classi- opposlTthe 
cist himself, Milton objects to the usual humanistic edu- 
cation with its "gramma tic flats and shallows where 
they stuck unreasonably to learn a few words with lamen- 
table construction," and declares that the boys "do for 
the most part grow into hatred and contempt of learning." 
He claims that "we do amiss to spend seven or eight 
years in scraping together so much miserable Latin and 
Greek as might be learned otherwise easily and delight- 
fully in one year." He especially stigmatizes, as Locke 
did later, the formal work in Latin composition, "forcing 
the empty wits of children to compose themes, verses, 
and orations, which are the acts of ripest judgment and 
the final work of a head filled by long reading and ob- 
serving." 



formal hu- 
manism. 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



His Encyclopaedic but Humanistic Curriculum 

It is not, however, the study of classics in itself that 
Milton opposes, but the constant harping upon grammar 
without regard to the thought of the authors, for "though 
a linguist should pride himself to have all the tongues 
that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he have not studied 
the solid things ^ in them as well as the words and lexicons, 
he were nothing so much to be esteemed as any yeoman 
or tradesman competently wise in his mother dialect 
only." In this statement, as well as elsewhere, it is 
obvious that by 'things' Milton meant ideas and not 
objects. Even in his recommendation of a most en- 
cyclopaedic program of studies, which is usually one of 
the marks of the sense realist, he seems to imply the ' hu- 
manistic' rather than the 'sense' realism, although he 
wrote half a century after Bacon and was a younger con- 
temporary of Comenius.^ While his curriculum includes 
large elements of science and manual training, and es- 
pecially emphasizes a knowledge of nature, it affords 
the broadest training in Latin and Greek, and, after the 
fashion of broader humanism in general, undertakes to 
teach agriculture through Latin, and natural history, 
geography, and medicine through Greek. On the whole, 

1 Italics not in the original. 

2 The Tractate is dedicated to Samuel Hartlib, who was also the friend 
and patron of Comenius, and a well-known sense realist. See footnote 
on page 2. 



JOHN MILTON AND HIS 'ACADEMY' 5 

it is an education of books, and the enormous load of 
languages — Italian, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac, as * 
well as Latin and Greek, — together with mathematics, 
sciences, and other studies, would make such a course 
impossible, except, as some one has said, for a 'college 
of Mil tons.' 

His Broad Definition of Education 

As with some of the other humanistic realists, notably and much 
Montaigne, Milton also would have considerable time social sd-^ 
given, toward the end of the course, to the social sciences, together with 
such as history, ethics, politics, economics, and theology, ^^"^^^ ^^ 
and to such practical training as would bring one in abroad. 
touch with life. He likewise advocates the experience 
and knowledge that would come from travel in England 
and abroad. Thus, in the place of the usual restricted 
conception of humanistic education, Milton would sub- 
stitute a genuine study and understanding of the clas- 
sical authors and a real preparation for life. While at Hence he de- 
first he piously declares that the aim of learning is "to tion from the 
repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to fitthig^one'r 
know God aright," he is more specific later when he environment. 

frames his famous definition : — 

) 
"I call therefore a complete and generous education that which 

its a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all 
the offices both private and public of peace and war." 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



The 'Acad- 
emy' is to 
provide a 
secondary 
and higher 
education. 



His Educational Institution, — the * Academy' 

The school in which Milton would carry out his ideal 
education he calls an Academy , and states that it should 
be held in ^^a spatious house and ground about it, big 
enough to lodge one hundred and fifty persons." This 
institution should keep the boys from the age of twelve 
to twenty-one, and should provide both secondary and 
higher education, *'not heeding a remove to any other 
house of scholarship, except it be some peculiar college 
of Law or Physic." And he adds: ^' After this pattern 
as many edifices may be converted to this use as shall 
be needful in every city throughout this land." 

Influence of Milton's 'Academy' in England and 
America 

It was after- Strangely enough, this educational curriculum and 

ward adopted . . 

in a modified orgamzatiou of Miltou's, exaggerated as they were, found 
a partial embodiment and function in a new educational 
institution that became of great importance in England ! 
and the United States. 'Academies' based upon thisi 
general plan were organized in many places to meet cer- 
tain exigencies of the English nonconformists, that arose;; 
toward the end of Milton's life. The two thousand I 
dissenting clergymen who were driven from their par- 
ishes by the harsh Act of Uniformity in 1662, in many 
instances found school-teaching a congenial means ofl 



noncon- 
formists in 
England, 



JOHN MILTON AND HIS 'ACADEMY* 7 

earning a livelihood, and at the same time of furnishing 
higher education to the young dissenters who were ex- 
cluded from the universities and 'grammar'^ schools. 
The first of these academies was that established by- 
Richard Frankland at Rathmill in 1665, and this was 
followed by the institutions of John Woodhouse at 
Sheriffhales, of Charles Morton at Newington Green, 
and of some thirty other educators of whom we have 
record. While these academies usually followed the 
humanistic realism of Milton, and, since their chief func- 
tion was to fit for the ministry, included Latin, Greek, 
and Hebrew in their course, they were also rich in sci- 
ences, mathematics, and the social sciences, and the 
vernacular was especially emphasized.^ The new tend- 
ency was also broadened and amplified by the writ- 
ings of Locke, whose Thoughts ^ became the great guide 
for the managers of the Puritan academies. In 1689, 
when the Act of Toleration put nonconformity upon a 
legal footing, the academies were allowed to be regularly 
incorporated. 

So in America, when, by the middle of the eighteenth and for sec- 
ondary edu- 
century, the number of religious denominations had cation 

greatly increased and the demands upon secondary 

^ See footnote on p. 8. 

2 A detailed account of the history and curriculum of these academies 
is given in Brown, Making of Our Middle Schools, Chap. VIII. 
' See pp. 52 £E. 



8 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

education had expanded, the ^grammar' schools/ with 
their narrow denominational ideals and their limitation 
to a classical training and college preparation, proved 
inadequate, and an imitation of the English academy 
arose as a supplement. The first suggestion of an 
^academy' was made in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin. 
He wished to inaugurate an education that would pre- 
pare for life, and not merely for college. He accordingly 
proposed for the youth of Pennsylvania a course in which 
English grammar and composition, penmanship, arith- 
metic, drawing, geography, history, the natural sciences, 
oratory, civics, and logic were to be emphasized. He 
would gladly have excluded the languages altogether 
and made the course completely realistic, but for politic 
reasons he made these subjects elective. His academy 
was opened at Philadelphia in 1751, and similar institu- 
tions sprang up rapidly through the other colonies during 
the latter half of the eighteenth century. Shortly after 
the Revolution, partly owing to the inability or the un- 
willingness of the towns or the counties to maintain gram- 
mar schools, j:he academy quite eclipsed these institutions, 
and became for a time the representative type of second- 
ary school in the United States.^ 

1 These 'grammar' schools were secondary institutions, and the 
classics composed the chief part of the curriculum. They had been bor- 
rowed from the (Latin) grammar schools of England by the American 
colonists. See Graves, History of Education during the Transition, 
pp. 172-174. 2 See Brown, op. cit., Chap. IX. 



I 



JOHN MILTON AND HIS 'ACADEMY' 9 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Source 
*MiLTON, John. Tractate of Education. 

II. Authorities 

*Adamson, J. W. Pioneers of Modern Education. Chap. VII. 
Barnard, H. American Journal of Education. Vol. II, pp. 61-76. 
Barnard, H. English Pedagogy. Pp. 145-190. 
Brooks, P. Milton as an Educator (in Essays and Addresses, 

pp. 300-319). 
Browning, O. History of Educational Theories, Chap. VI. 
*Browning, O. Milton's Tractate of Education. 
*Laurie, S. S. Educational Opinion since the Renaissance. Chap. 

XII. 
Laurie, S. S. Essays and Addresses, Chap. IX. 
Masson, D. Life of Milton. Vol. Ill, pp. 186-255. 
*MoRRis, E. E. Milton's Tractate of Education. Introduction. 
Quick, R. H. Educational Reformers. Chap. XII, pp. 212-218. 

* It is suggested that the general reader begin with the references 
marked with an asterisk. They are not necessarily the most valuable, 
but they are usually available and interesting. 



CHAPTER II 

FRANCIS BACON AND THE INDUCTIVE METHOD 
'Sense real- MiLTON and Other innovatois represented realism in 

ism' was a 

reflection of its early ^ humanistic^ and 'social' phases. But the 

development realistic awakening did not cease with reviving the idea 

teenth^^d represented by the word or with the endeavor to bring 

seventeenth ^j^^ ^^^^ [^ ^^^^.j^ ^j^]^ ^j^g jif^ Yie was to lead. The 

centuries. It sr r 

led to new earlier or humanistic realism simply represents a stage 

principles, 

content, in the process of transition from the narrow and formal 

method, and , t rr>i • i 

texts in edu- humamsm to the movement of sensc realism. This later 
form of realism was a reflection of the great scientific 
development of the latter part of the sixteenth and the 
first half of the seventeenth centuries, with its variety 
of discoveries and inventions. The first great step in 
this movement was taken by Copernicus. Not until 
1543 was his h)^o thesis of a solar system published, but 
as early as 1496 there had been a dissatisfaction with the 
existing Ptolemaic interpretation, and a groping after 
a more satisfactory explanation of the universe. After 
Copernicus, other great discoverers rapidly arose in Italy, 
France, Holland, and England, and the spirit of the new 
movement was felt in philosophy and education. Many 



cation. 



BACON AND THE INDUCTIVE METHOD ii 

new discoveries in science and inventions were made, 
and philosophy began to base itself upon reason and the 
senses. Kepler made it possible to search the heavens, 
Galileo reorganized the science of physics, and an air 
pump was invented by Guericke. This scientific progress 
was accompanied on the philosophic side by the rational- 
ism of Descartes and the empiricism of Locke. The 
educational theorists, as a result, began to introduce 
science and a knowledge of real things into the curricu- 
lum. It was felt that humanism gave a knowledge only 
of words, books, and opinions, and did not even at its 
best lead to a study of real things. Hence new methods 
and new books were produced, to shorten and improve 
the study of the classical languages, and new content 
was imported into the courses of study. The movement 
would even seem to include some attempt at a formula- 
tion of scientific principles in education. 

Bacon's New Method 

The new tendency, however, did not appear in educa- The scientific 
tion until after the time of Francis Bacon (i 561-1626). fostfomu- 
The use of the scientific method by the various discoverers ^^^'f' ^7 ^^' 

•' con, who, in 

was largely unconscious, and it remained for Bacon to opposition to 

° •' ^ theAristote- 

formulate what he called the method of 'induction,' Han method, 

, , , published his 

and, by advocatmg its use, to point the way to its devel- Novum Or- 
opment as a scientific theory of education. He is, there- meanTof ^ 
fore, ordinarily known as the first sense realist. Accord- ^^ugi^^aU 



12 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

menmight ing to Dr. Rawley, his biographer, Bacon, while still at 
complete the University of Cambridge, conceived a disgust for 
andTruth! Aristotle's philosophy as it was then taught. At any 
rate, it is known that even during the busiest part of his 
public career he undertook in sporadic works to combat 
the Aristotelian method, and to form a new procedure 
on the basis of the scientific discoveries of the day. Not 
until 1620, however, did he publish his great treatise on 
inductive reasoning called Novum Organum ('new in- 
strument') in opposition to Aristotle's work on deduc- 
tion. In behalf of his treatise Bacon argues that, 
as the hand is helpless without the right tool to aid 
it, so the human intellect is inefficient when it does not 
possess its proper instrument or method, and, in his 
opinion, all men are practically equal in attaining com- 
plete knowledge and truth, if they will but use the 
mode of procedure that he describes. This new method 
of seeking knowledge he contrasts with that in vogue, 
as follows : — 

"There are and can be only two ways of searching into and 
discovering truth. The one flies from the senses and particulars 
to the most general axioms, and from these principles, the truth 
of which it takes for settled and immovable, proceeds to judg- 
ment and the discovery of middle axioms. And this way is now 
in fashion. The other derives axioms from the senses and par- 
ticulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives 
at the most general axioms last of all. This is the true way, but 
as yet untried." 



BACON AND THE INDUCTIVE METHOD 13 

Hence, Bacon would begin with particulars, rather than 
use the a priori reasoning of the syllogism, as advocated 
by the schoolmen under the impression that this was the 
method of Aristotle. Before, however, one's observa- First, how- 
tions can be accurately made. Bacon felt it would be must divest 
necessary to divest oneself of certain false and ill-defined ^ertahi ° 
notions to which humanity is liable. The preconcep- preconcep- 

•' r- jr tions, or 

tions of which it is necessary to be rid are his famous 'idols.' 
'idols.' These he declares to be of four classes: — 

"Idols of the Tribe, which have their foundation in human 
nature itself ; Idols of the Cave, for every one, besides the faults 
he shares with his race, has a cave or den of his own; Idols of 
the Market-place, formed by the intercourse and association of 
men with each other ; and Idols of the Theatre, which have immi- 
grated into men's minds from the various dogmas of philosophies 
and also from wrong laws of demonstration." 

Nor should the new method end with a mere collection And one 
of particulars. This proceeding Bacon believes to be with particu^ 
useless and fully as dangerous for science as to generalize 
a priori, and holds that these two polar errors together 
account very largely for the ill success of science in the 
past. He declares : — 

"Those who have handled sciences have been either men of 
experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like 
the ant ; they only collect and use : the reasoners resemble spiders ; 
who make cobwebs out of their substance. But the bee takes a 
middle course ; it gathers its material from the flowers of the 



lars. 



14 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



The facts 
must be 
tabulated 
and the 
'forms' dis- 
covered. 



garden and the field, but transforms and digests it by a power 
of its own. Not unlike that is the true business of philosophy; 
for it neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers of the mind, 
nor does it take the matter which it gathers from natural history 
and mechanical experiments and lay it up in the memory whole, 
as it finds it; but lays it up in the understanding altered and 
digested. Therefore, from a closer and purer league between 
these two faculties, the experimental and the rational (such as 
has never yet been made), much may be hoped." 

In the second book of the Novum Organum Bacon 
begins, though he does not complete, a more definite 
statement of his method. Briefly stated, his plan was, 
after ridding the mind of its prepossessions, to tabul^ 
carefully lists of all the facts of nature. / It seemed to 
him a comparatively easy task to make, through the 
cooperation of scientific men, a complete accumulation 
of all the facts of science. After these data were secured, 
the next step would be to discover the ' forms ' of things," 
by which he means the underlying essence or law of each 
particular quality or simple nature. Such an abstrac- 
tion could be achieved by a process of comparing the 
cases where the quality appears and where it does not 
appear, and of excluding the instances that fall under 
both heads until some ^form' is clearly present only 
when the quality is. Then, as a proof, another list may 
be drawn up where the quality appears in different 
degrees and where the 'form' should vary corre- 
spondingly. 



BACON AND THE INDUCTIVE METHOD 15 

* Salomon's House' and the Pansophic Course 

A description of what Bacon thinks may be expected Bacon's idea 

when this scientific method is systematically carried out be accom- 

can be found in his fable of the New Atlantis. The in- ^^^^ ^^^ ^ 

habitants of this mythical island are described as having ^^^^^^^^j^g 

in the course of ages created a state in which ideal sani- New Atlantis, 

where the 

tary, economic, political, and social conditions obtained, members of 

... ... 'Salomon's 

The most important mstitution of this society is its House' de- 
^ Salomon's House,' an organization in which the members selves to 
devoted themselves to scientific research and invention, research^ 
and in their supposed investigations Bacon anticipates 
much that scientists and inventors have to-day only just 
begun to realize. He represents these Utopian scientists 
as making all sorts of physical, chemical, astronomical, 
medical, and engineering experiments and discoveries, 
including the artificial production of metals, the forcing 
of plants, grafting, and variation of species, the infusion 
of serums, vivisection, telescopes, microphones, tele- 
phones, fl)dng-machines, submarine boats, steam-engines, 
and perpetual-motion machines. 

Bacon was not a teacher, and his treatment of educa- Education 
tional problems appears in brief and scattered passages, simiiariy^or- 
and shows a failure to appreciate fully the importance thrbafis°of 
to be attached to the education of the young.^ Yet his 'pansophia.* 

^See Advancement of Learning, Bk. II, Chap. I; Bk. VI, Chap. IV; 
Bk. VII, Chap. Ill ; also his essays, Of Studies, Of Parents and Children, 
Of Custom and Education, etc. While he would largely turn over the 



i6 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

description of 'Salomon's House' would seem to imply 
an interest in promoting scientific research and higher 
education at least, and a belief in such an organization 
of education that society might gradually accumulate 
a knowledge of nature and impart it to all pupils at every 
stage. Perhaps this is attributing too much to the great 
English philosopher, but such certainly was the plan of 
Ratich and Comenius, who later on worked out the Ba- 
conian theory in education, and this dream of pansophia 
Call- wisdom') formed part of the educational creed of 
the later realists in general. Moreover, we know from 
the second book of his Advancement of Learning that 
Bacon ardently desired a reformation of the organization, 
content, and methods of higher education, and that 
among his suggestions for advancement were a wider 
course of study, more complete equipment for scientific 
investigation, a closer cooperation among institutions 
of learning, and a forwarding of the 'unfinished sciences.' 

The Value of Bacon's Method 

Bacon prop- In estimating the method of Bacon, it is difficult to be 

eriy rejected 

the contem- fair. The importance of his work has been as much ex- 
a priori aggeratcd by some as it has been imdervalued by others. 

education of the young to the Jesuits, he is pedagogically wise in his 
suggestions as to the promotion of particular ability, the strengthening of 
mental weaknesses, and the methods of moral education. See Sisson, 
Francis Bacon on Education {Education, November, 1908). 



BACON AND THE INDUCTIVE METHOD 17 

He reacted from the current view of Aristotle's reason- method, but, 
ing, and, taking his cue from the many scientific workers ing to put all 
of his time, formulated a new method in opposition to l^veUnat- 
what he mistook as the position of the great logician. Jfg u^dert^^k 
He very properly rejected the contemporary method of too much, 
attempting to establish a priori the first principles of a mostme- 

A ^ ^ ^ r i i r i chanical pro- 

science, and then deduce from them by means of the cedure. 
syllogism all the propositions which that science could 
contain. But in endeavoring to create a method whereby 
anyone could attain all the knowledge of which the human 
mind was capable, he undertook far too much. His 
effort to put all men on a level in reaching truth resulted 
in a most mechanical mode of procedure and neglected 
the part played by scientific imagination in the framing 
of hypotheses. Scientific method is not at present satis- 
fied to hold, as Bacon did, that because all observed cases 
under certain conditions produce a particular effect, 
every other instance not yet observed will necessarily 
have the same property or effect. The modern procedure 
is rather that, when certain effects are observed, of which 
the cause or law is unknown, the scientist frames an 
h3rpothesis to account for them ; then, by the process of 
deduction, tries this on the facts that he has collected; 
and if the h3^othesis is verified, maintains that he has 
discovered the cause or law. Yet this is only a more 
explicit statement of what has always been implied in 
every process of reasoning. The method had certainly 



i8 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

been used by the later Greek philosophers, and it, as 
well as the syllogism, had even been formulated by Aris- 
totle, although this part of his work was not known in 
Bacon's day. 

Bacon cannot, therefore, really be said to have in- 
vented a new method It is also evident that he failed 
to appreciate the work of Aristotle and the function of 
genius in scientific discovery. But he did largely put 
an end to the existing process of a priori reasoning, and 
he did call attention to the necessity of careful experi- 
mentation and induction. Probably no book ever made 
a greater revolution in modes of thinking or overthrew 
more prejudices than Bacon's Novum Organum. It 
represents a culmination in the reaction that had been 
growing up through the Renaissance, the Reformation, 
and the earlier realism. 

As far as education is concerned, Bacon, while not 
skilled or greatly interested in the work himself, influ- 
enced profoundly the writing and practice of many who 
were, and has done much to shape the spirit of modern 
education. His method was first applied directly to 
education by a German known as Ratich, and, in a niore 
effective way, by Comenius, a Moravian. 



BACON AND THE INDUCTIVE METHOD 19 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Source 

*Bacon, F. Philosophical Works (edited by Spedding, Ellis and 
Heath). 

II. Authorities 

*Adamson, J. W. Pioneers of Modern Education. Chap. III. 

Barnard, H. American Journal of Education. Vol. V, pp. 662,- 
668. 

Barnard, H. English Pedagogy. Pp. 77-122. 

Beard, C. The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. Chap. XI. 

Caird, E. University Addresses. Pp. 124-156. 

*FowLER, T. Bacon's Novum Organum. 

Laurie, S. S. History of Educational Opinion since the Renais- 
sance. Chap. X. 

MuNROE, J. P. The Educational Ideal. Chap. III. 

NiCHOL, J. Francis Bacon. 

SissoN, E. O. Francis Bacon and the Modern University {Popular 
Science Monthly, October, 1906) and Francis Bacon on Edu- 
cation {Education, November, igo8). 

*Spedding, J. Life and Times of Francis Bacon. 



CHAPTER III 
RATICH AND HIS EDUCATIONAL CLAIMS 

Ratich Wolfgang von Ratke (15 71-163 5), generally called 

Baconian ^ Rcitich froHi an abbreviation of his Latinized name/ 

S?probiems ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Wilster, Holstein, and first studied for the 

of education, ministry at the University of Rostock. Later, he con- 

especially -^ •' ' 

language tinued his studies in England, where he probably became 

teaching. 

acquainted with the work of Bacon. Before long, realiz- 
ing that he had an incurable defect in speech which 
would keep him from success in the pulpit, he decided 
to devote himself to educational reform. He planned to 
apply the principles of Bacon to the problems of education 
in general, but he intended especially to reform the meth- 
ods of language teaching. 

Ratich's Attempts at School Reform 

In 161 2 Ratich memorialized the imperial diet, while 
it was sitting at Frankfurt, and asked for an investiga- 
tion of his methods. Two professors from the University 
of Giessen were commissioned to examine his propositions, 
and afterward the University of Jena similarly had four 

^ I.e. Ratichius. 
20 



RATICH AND HIS EDUCATIONAL CLAIMS 21 

of its staff look into the matter, and in each case a favor- His attempts 
able, not to say enthusiastic, verdict was reached. When, prfn^^i^s ^^ 
however, on the strength of such reports, the town coun- f^rmi^unsuc- 
cil of Augsburg gave him control of the schools of that cessfui. 
city, he was not able to justify his claims, and the ar- 
rangement was abandoned at the end of a year. Having 
appealed to the diet again without encouragement, 
Ratich began traveling from place to place, trying to 
interest various princes or cities in his system. He was 
befriended by Dorothea, Duchess of Weimar, who in- 
duced her brother, Prince Ludwig of Anhalt-Kothen, to 
provide a school for Ratich. This institution was fur- 
nished with an expensive equipment, including a large 
printing plant ; a set of teachers that had been trained 
in the Ratichian methods and sworn to secrecy, were 
engaged; and some five hundred school children of 
Kothen were started on this royal road to learning. The 
experiment lasted only eighteen months, and, largely 
owing to Ratich's inexperience as a schoolmaster, was a 
dismal failure. The prince was so enraged at his pe- 
cuniary loss and the ridiculous light in which he was 
placed that he threw the unhappy reformer into prison,* 
and released him at the end of three months only upon 
his signing a statement that he had undertaken more 
than he could perform. After this, Ratich tried his hand 
at Magdeburg, where he failed again, mostly as the result 
of theological differences, and then was enabled to pre- 



22 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

sent his principles to Oxenstiern, the chancellor of Sweden, 
but he never really recovered from his disappointment 
in Kothen, and died of paralysis in Erfurt before he could 
hear from Stockholm. 



His Claims and Methods 

His claims Although there was considerable merit in the prin- 

the telXng ciplcs of Ratich, he had many of the ear-marks of a moun- 

thJarfs^an?' ^^bank. Such may be considered his constant attempts 

sciences, and ^q heep his mcthods a profound secret, and the spec- 

umformity, ^ ^ ' '■ 

seemextrava- tacular ways he had of presenting the ends they were 

gant, but 

were in keep- bouud to accomplish. In writing the diet, he promised 
realism. by means of his system : first, to teach young or old 
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin without difficulty, and in a 
shorter time than was ordinarily devoted to any one 
language; secondly, to introduce schools in which all 
arts and sciences should be thoroughly taught and ex- 
tended; and, lastly, to establish uniformity in speech, 
religion, and government. As Ratich stated them, these 
claims seemed decidedly extravagant, but as far as he 
expected to carry them out, they were but the natural 
aims of an education based upon realism and the Ba- 
conian method. 
"First study The rulcs of procedure used by Ratich and his disciples 

the vernacu- -i i -cr -i-» 

lar" and havc been extracted by Von Raumer from a work on 
mga ^^ Ratichian methods published after the system had 



RATICH AND HIS EDUCATIONAL CLAIMS 23 

become somewhat known.^ In linguistic training he a time" were 
insisted, like all realists, that one '^should first study the dpiesupon 
vernacular" as an introduction to other languages. He practice at 
also held to the principle of "one thing at a time and f^^^^"^^^^ 
often repeated." By this he meant that, in studying a 
language, one should master a single book. At Kothen, 
as soon as the children knew their letters, they were 
required to learn Genesis thoroughly for the sake of their 
German. Each chapter was read twice by the teacher, 
while the pupils followed the text with their finger. 
When they could read the book perfectly, they were 
taught grammar from it as a text. The teacher pointed 
out the various parts of speech and made the children 
find other examples, and then had them decline, con- 
jugate and parse. In taking up Latin, a play of Ter- 
ence was used in a similar fashion. A translation was 
read to the pupils several times before they were shown 
the original ; then the Latin was translated to them from 
the text; next, the class was drilled in grammar; and 
finally, the boys were required to turn German sentences 
into Latin after the style of Terence. This method may 
have produced a high degree of concentration, but it was 
liable to result in monotony and want of interest, unless 
skilfully administered. 

Another formulation of Ratich's, whereby he insisted 

^ Methodus Institutionis Nova Ratichii et Ratichianorum, published by 
Johannes Rhenius at Leipzig in 1626. 



24 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

upon "uniformity and harmony in all things," must 
have been of especial value in teaching the grammar 
of different languages, where the methods and even 
the terminology are often so diverse. Similarly, his 
idea that one should "learn first the thing and then its 
explanation," which was his way of advising that the 
details and exceptions be deferred until the entire out- 
line of a subject is well in hand, would undoubtedly save 
a pupil from much confusion in acquiring a new language. 
And some of his other principles, which applied to 
education in general, are even more distinctly realistic. 
For example, he laid down the precept, "Follow the 
order of nature." Although his idea of 'nature' was 
rather hazy, and his methods often consisted in mak- 
ing fanciful analogies with natural phenomena, yet 
his injunction to make nature the guide seems to 
point the way to realism. Moreover, his attitude on 
"everything by experiment and induction," which com- 
pletely repudiates all authority, went even farther and 
quite out-Baconed Bacon. And his additional recom- 
mendation that "nothing is to be learned by rote" looked 
in the same direction. Finally, these realistic methods 
were naturally accompanied by the humane injunction 
of "nothing by compulsion." 



RATICH AND HIS EDUCATIONAL CLAIMS 25 

His Educational Influence 

Thus Ratich not only helped shape some of the best Ratich antid- 
methods for teaching languages, but he also anticipated of modem 
many of the main principles of modern pedagogy. In aithouX'be- 
carrying out his ideas, however, he was uniformly un- c^^se of char- 
successful. This was somewhat due to his charlatan inexperience, 

and the op- 

method of presentation, but more because of errors in position of 

,...,,. ... , . others, he 

his prmciples, his want of training and experience as a failed to 
teacher, and the impatience, jealousy, and conservatism principles. 
of others. He must have been regarded by his contem- 
poraries in general as a complete failure, whenever they 
contrasted his promises with his performances. Never- 
theless, it is clear that he stirred up considerable thought 
and had a wide influence. He won a great many converts 
to his principles, and, through the texts and treatises 
written as a result of the movement he stimulated, his 
ideas were largely perpetuated and expanded. In the 
next generation came Comenius, who carried out prac- 
tically all the principles of Ratich more fully, and thus, 
in a way, the German innovator, unpractical as he was, 
became a sort of spiritual ancestor to Pestalozzi, Froebel, 
and Herbart. 



26 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 
SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Source 

RiCHTER, A. Ratichianische Studien (Pts. 9 and 12 of Neudrucke 
Pddagogischer Schriften). 

11. Authorities 

*Adamson, J. W. Pioneers of Modern Education. Pp. 31-43. 
Barnard, H. American Journal of Education. Vol. V, pp. 229- 

256. 
*Barnard, H. German Teachers and Educators. Pp. 319-346. 
Browning, O. Educational Theories. Chap. IV. 
Compayre, G. History of Pedagogy. Pp. 1 21-12 2. 
*QuiCK, R. H. Educational Reformers. Chap. IX. 



CHAPTER IV 

COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 

Jan Amos Komensky (1592-1671), better known by 
his Latinized name of Comenius, was born at Nivnitz, a 
village of Moravia. He was, by religious inheritance, a 
devoted adherent of the Protestant sect called Moravian 
Brethren} While he became bishop of the Moravians, 
and devoted many of his writings to religion or theo- 
logical polemics, this does not concern us here, except as 
it affected his attitude as an educational reformer and 
a sense realist. 

The Education and Earliest Work of Comenius 

In his schooling, possibly as the result of careless comenius 

guardianship of his inheritance, Comenius did not i^^aLathi^ 

come to the study of Latin, the all-important subject school and at 
in his day, until he was sixteen. This delay must, 

1 The Moruvian or Bohemian Church, officially known as TJnitas 
Fratrum, is generally considered Lutheran in doctrine, but its religious 
descent goes back of Luther's time to the Bohemian martyr, Huss, and it 
has always preserved a separate organization. There are now three 
'provinces' of Moravians, the German, British, and American, They 
n'lmber in all about thirty-five thousand members, of whom some twenty 
thousand are in the United States. 

27 



wrote his 
Easier Gram- 
mar. 



28 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

however, be regarded as most fortunate for education, 
as his maturity enabled him to perceive the amount of 
time then wasted upon grammatical complications and 
other absurdities in teaching languages, and was instru- 
mental in causing him to undertake an improvement of 
method. After his course in the Latin school, Comenius 
spent a couple of years in higher education at the Lutheran 
College of Herborn in the duchy of Nassau,^ where he 
went to prepare for the ministry of his denomination, and 
He then at the University of Heidelberg. Then, as he was still 
p^re?au and rather young for the cares of the pastorate, he taught for 
four years (16 14-16 18) in the school at Prerau, Moravia. 
Here he soon made his first attempt at simplifying the 
teaching of Latin by the production of a work called 
Grammaticce Facilioris Frcecepta ('Precepts of Easier 
Grammar'). Next (161 8-1 621) he became pastor at 
Fiilneck. Then, after a series of persecutions resulting 
from the Thirty Years' War, during which he and his 
fellow pastors were driven from pillar to post, he settled 
in 1627 at the Polish town of Leszno.^ 

The Janua Linguarum and Other Texts of the Series 

In the Janua, This place bccamc the, center from which most of his 
remarkable great Contributions to education emanated. During his 

1 The University of Prague, to which Comenius would naturally have 
gone, was at this time in the control of the Utraquists, a Hussite sect op- 
posed to the Moravians. 

2 This town, now called Lissa, is a part of Prussia. 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 29 

residence of fourteen years as rector of the Moravian series of texts 

gymnasium here, he accompHshed many reforms in the o?Latin'he^ 

schools, and began to embody his ideas in a series of ^^^gJI^?^" 

remarkable textbooks. The first of these works was pro- Ratich and 

Bateus. 

duced in 163 1, and has generally been known by the name 
of Janua Linguarum Reserata ('Gate of Languages Un- 
locked'). It was intended as an introductory book to 
the study of Latin,^ and consisted of an arrangement into 
sentences of several thousand Latin words for the most 
familiar objects and ideas. The Latin was printed on 
the right-hand side of the page, and on the left was given 
a translation in the vernacular. By this means the pupil 
obtained a grasp of all ordinary knowledge and at the 
same time a start in his Latin vocabulary. In writing 
this text, Comenius may have been somewhat influenced 
by Ratich, the criticism of whose methods by the pro- 
fessors at Giessen ^ he had read while at Herborn,^ but he 
seems to have been more specifically indebted both for 
his method and the feHcitous name of his book to a 
Jesuit known as Bateus,^ who had written a similar work. 

1 In the first edition it was called Janua LingucB Latincs Reserata, 

2 See pp. 20 f. 

3 As. however, Ratich had failed to answer the letter of inquiry he 
wrote him from Leszno, Comenius must have largely worked out the plan 
independently. 

* Batty or Bateus was an Irishman, although at the College of Sala- 
manca in Spain. Comenius makes acknowledgments to him in the 
Janua, but says his ideas had been outlined some time before his attention 
was called to the book of the Jesuit father. 



30 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



The Vestibu- 
lum was an 
introduction 
to the Janua; 
the Atrium, a 
third book ; 
the Palatium, 
a fourth; the 
Orbis Pictus, 
an edition of 
the Janua 
with pictures; 
and the 
Schola Lu- 
dus, a drama- 
tized Janua. 



It was soon apparent that the Janua would be too 
difficult for beginners, and two years later Comenius 
issued his Vestibulum ('Vestibule') as an introduction 
to it. While the Janua contained all the ordinary words 
of the language, — some eight thousand, there were but 
a few hundred of the most common in the Vestibulum, 
Both of the works, however, were several times revised, 
modified, and enlarged. Also grammars, lexicons, and 
treatises to accompany them were written in later periods 
of Comenius's Hterary career. Much work of this sort 
was done between 1642 and 1650. During this period 
Comenius had accepted the invitation of Sweden to settle, 
under the patronage of his friend, Ludovic De Geer, at 
Elbing, a quiet town on the Baltic, and develop his ideas 
on method and school improvement. Here the Vesti- 
bulum and Janua were revised,^ and the third of his Latin 
readers, the Atrium ('Entrance Hall'),^ which took the 
pupil one stage beyond the Janua, was probably started. 
But the Atrium was not finished and published until 
Comenius began his residence of four years at Saros- 
Patak, where he was in 1650 urged by the prince of 



1 In Elbing the Methodus Linguarum Novissima ('Latest Method in 
Languages'), which outlines his idea of the purpose and principles of 
language teaching, together with several other didactic works, was also 
produced, 

2 When planning this work in the Didactica Magna (Chap. XXII, 19 
and 22-24), he refers to it as Palatium, and the fourth book, afterward 
called Palatium, he there speaks of as Thesaurus. 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 31 

Transylvania to come and reform the schools of the 
country. 

From his description of an ideal school for Patak,^ 
and from other works, it is known that he intended also 
to write a fourth ^ work in the Janual series, but he never 
completed it. This was to be known as SapienticB 
Palatium ('Palace of Wisdom'), and was to consist of 
selections from Caesar, Sallust, Cicero, and others of the 
best prose writers. While in Patak, however, Comenius 
did write two supplementary textbooks, the Orhis Sen- 
sualium Pictus ('The World of Sense Objects Pictured') 
and the Schola Ludus ('School Plays'). The latter, 
which is an attempt to dramatize the Janua, soon fell 
into disuse, but the former, in which Comenius applied 
his principles of sense realism more fully than in any other 
of his readers, remained a very popular text for two cen- 
turies, and is most typical of the Comenian principles. 
It is practically an edition of the Janua accompanied 
with pictures, but is simpler and more extensive than 
the first issue of that book. Each object in a picture 
is marked with a number corresponding to one in the 
text.^ It is the first illustrated reading book on record. 

* Scholce Pansophic(B Delineatio. 

2 It would be the fifth, if we should count the unimportant Auctarium 
('Supplement'), which he afterward (1656) produced in Amsterdam and 
inserted between the Vestihulum and the Janua. 

' The reprint of the English edition, published by Bardeen (Syracuse, 
1887), should be consulted. This method of presentation is referred to by 



32 GREAT EDUCATORS, OF THREE CENTURIES 



The Didac- 
tica gives his 
principles, 
organization, 
content, and 
methods of 
education. 



It owes much 
to the works 
of Bacon, the 
EncyclopcB- 
dia of Alsted, 
and the writ- 
ings of many 
others. 



The Didactica Magna as the Basis of All^ His Works 

Thus, throughout his Ufe Comenius was more or less 
engaged at every period in writing texts for the study of 
Latin. But these books connected with method were 
only a part of the work he contemplated. During his 
whole career he had in mind a complete system of the 
principles of education, and of what, in consequence, he 
wished the organization, subject-matter, and methods 
to be. His ideas on the whole question of education 
were early formulated at Leszno in his Didactica Magna ^ 
('Great Didactic')- While this work has many original 
features and is more carefully worked out than anything 
similar, Comenius frankly recognizes his obligations to 
many who have written previously. In fact, he rather 
strove to assimilate all that was good in the realistic move- 
ment and use it as a foundation. In this way the Didac- 
tica may be said to develop many of the scientific prin- 
ciples and methods found in Vives,^ Bateus, Ratich, 



Comenius as early as the Vestihulum as a desirable one, which at that time 
could not be carried out for lack of a skilful engraver. It may have been 
suggested to Comenius in the first instance by a Greek Testament edited 
early in the seventeenth century by a Professor Lubinus of the University 
of Rostock. 

1 This is a singular, the noun ars being understood. The original title 
has in it over one hundred words, beginning Didactica Magna; Omnes 
Omnia Docendi Exhihens. For a translation of the entire title, see Keat- 
inge, The Great Didactic of Comenius, p. 155. 

^ Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) was a Spanish humanist, who spent 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 33 

Andreae/ Frey,^ and Bodinus,^ but it owes a greater debt 
for its pansophic basis of education to the works of Bacon 
and even more to the Encyclopedia of Johann Heinrich 
Alsted, under whom Comenius had studied at Herborn. 
The Didactica seems to have been completed in the 
Moravian dialect^ about the time the Janua first ap- 
peared, and must have been contemplated somewhat 
earlier. Hence, while this work was not translated 
into Latin and published until 1657, and was never 
printed in the language in which it was originally written 
until a century and three quarters after the death of its 
author, the point of view must have been established 
even before Comenius came to Leszno, and influenced 
him throughout his career. 

The rest of the books of Comenius may be regarded The Didac- 
as amphfications of certain parts of the Didactica. To expikitinthe 
make his instructions on infant training more explicit, fjj^^^f ^^^ 
he wrote, while still at Leszno, the Injormatorium Skoly vernacular 

several years in England. His chief treatise, De Tradendis Disciplinisy 
insists upon religion and classics as the main content of education. 

^ Johann Valentin Andrecs (1586-1654), court preacher at Stuttgart, 
attacked the formal religion and education of the times in numerous 
pamphlets. 

2 Janus CcsciliusFrey (?-i63i) was a German educationalist, living in 
Paris, who produced a number of practical works. 

' Jean Bodin (i 530-1 596) was a French writer on political theory, who 
published also an unusual educational treatise called Methodus adfacilem 
historiarum cognitionem. 

* Czech was spoken in Moravia. 
D 



34 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



series, and 
the Janual 
series. 



Attempts of 
Comenius 
at 'pan- 
sophia.' 



Materske ('Handbook of the Mother School')-^ He 
also supplemented the Didactica with a set of texts for 
the 'vernacular school' similar to the Janual series, which 
were intended for the 'Latin School' ; but, being written 
in an obscure dialect, these vernacular works were never 
revised and soon disappeared.^ But the phase of the 
Didactica most often elaborated both in his other works 
and in his school organization was the realistic one of 
pansophia ('universal knowledge'). This was most 
manifest in his desire to teach at least the rudiments of 
all things to every one. It has already been seen how 
this principle has been emphasized in his textbooks, such 
as the Janua and the Orhis Pictus. Also, after producing 
treatises upon Astronomy and Physics, he wrote, while 
at Leszno and Elbing, several works specifically on pan- 
sophia, of which the J anna Rerum Reserata ('Gate of 
Things Unlocked') is the most systematic and complete. 
These works, while diluted by traditional conceptions 
but little beyond those of scholasticism,^ show how far 

^ This work was written first in Czech, although not published in that 
dialect for two centuries and a quarter. It was issued in German in 
1633, and in Latin in 1657. Will S. Monroe has translated the Latin 
edition into English under the titleof The School of Infancy (Boston, 1896)^ 

2 The names of these texts, as he gives them in his ScholcB Vernaculcd 
Delineatio, were Violarium ('Violet-bed'), Rosarium ('Rose-bed'), 
Viridarium ('Grass-plot'), Labyrinthus ('Labyrinth'), Balsamentum 
(' Balsam-bed ') , and Paradisus Animce (* Paradise of the Soul ') . Cf . also 
the Didactica, Chap. XXIX, II. 

^ For example, with Comenius the constituents of the universe are 
reduced to matter, spirit, and light. 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 35 

Comenius, by organizing his data about large principles, 
instead of merely accumulating facts, had advanced 
beyond previous attempts. Further, in his Didactica 
he recommends that a great College of Pansophy, or 
scientific research,^ be established, and in 1641, just be- 
fore his call to Sweden, he went to England, at the invita- 
tion of Parliament, to start an institution of this charac- 
ter there. At Patak he even undertook to estabHsh a 
pansophic school of secondary grade, as outlined in his 
Pansophicm ScholcB Delineatio ('Plan of a Pansophic 
SchooP). 

Pansophia as His Ruling Passion 

This idea of pansophia seems to have been most keen Hispan- 
and vivid with Comenius all his life, but he was always rids w^e ^ 
prevented from undertaking it to any extent by one acci- L^^no ^* 
dent or another, and was doomed to constant disappoint- 
ment. Finally, shortly after his return from Patak, when 
Leszno was burned by the Poles,^ Comenius barely es- 
caped with his Hf e, and his siha, or collection of pansophic 
materials, upon which he had worked for forty years, 

1 He calls it a collegium didacticiim. 

2 The Moravians, who had suffered so severely from the Catholics 
during the Thirty Years' War, were in secret sympathy with the Protes- 
tant Swedes during their invasion of Poland. After the peace was de- 
clared, and several towns, including Leszno, were ceded to Sweden, 
Comenius foolishly published a letter of congratulation to the Swedish 
king, Charles Gustavus, and, in retaliation, the Poles attacked Leszno 
and plundered it. 



36 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

was completely destroyed. He was now in his sixty- 
fifth year and had not the strength or courage to pursue 
his favorite conception further. 

The Threefold Aim of Education 

According to While mystic and narrow at times, Comenius was a 

Comenius, 

education sinccre Christian, and his view of Hfe is most consistently 
knowledge. Carried out in his conception of education. He hoped 
Sety.^^^'^^ for a complete regeneration of mankind through an 
embodiment of religion in the.purpose of education. This 
educational aim is shown in the following propositions, 
which he develops in successive chapters of the Didac- 
tica: — 

"(I) Man is the highest, the most absolute, and the most 
excellent of things created ; (II) the ultimate end of man is beyond 
this life ; (III) this life is but a preparation for eternity ; (IV) there 
are three stages in the preparation for eternity: to know oneself 
(and with oneself all things), to rule oneself, and to direct oneself 
to God ; 1 (V) the seeds of these three (learning, virtue, religion 2) 
are naturally implanted in us ; (VI) if a man is to be produced, it 
is necessary that he be formed by education." 

Man's lower Thus, from his religious conception of society, Come- 
nius works out as his aim of education knowledge, morality ^ 

1 In the original, Se et secum omnia, Nosse; Regere; et ad Deum Diri- 
gere. Cf. 

" Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, — 
These three alone lead life to sovereign power." 

— Tennyson's (Enone. 

2 I.e. emditio, virtus seu mores konesias, religio seu pietas. 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 37 

and piety J and makes these ideals go hand in hand. It becontroUed 
is to be noted, however, that his ideas about what con- higher, 
stitutes rehgion have advanced a long way beyond those 
of mediaeval times. He regards education not as a means 
of ridding oneself of all natural instincts, and of exalting 
the soul by degrading the body, but as a system for con- 
trolling the lower nature by the higher through a mental, 
moral, and religious training. Education should enable 
one to become pious through the establishment of moral 
habits, which are in turn to be formed and guided through 
adequate knowledge. 

Universal Education and the Four School Periods 

But as with Comenius education is to prepare us to There should 
live as human beings, rather than to fit us for station, temof 
rank, or occupation, he further holds : — S^°°^^ ^°^ 

" (VIII) The young must be educated in common, and for 
this schools are necessary ; (IX) all the young of both sexes should 
be sent to school." 

Under these headings he shows that, while the parents 
are responsible for the education of their children, it has 
been necessary to set aside a special class of people for 
teachers and to create a special institution known as the 
school, and that there should be one system of schools 
for all alike, — ^'boys and girls, both noble and ignoble, 
rich and poor, in all cities and towns, villages and ham- 
lets." 



38 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



The 'school 
of the moth- 
er's lap,' the 
' vernacular 
school,' the 
'Latin 
school,' and 
the 'acad- 



Later on/ the Didactica more fully describes the or- 
ganization that Comenius believes would be most effec- 
tive. The system should consist of four periods of six 
years each, ranging from birth to manhood. The first 
period of instruction is that through infancy, which lasts 
up to the age of six, and the school is that of the ^mother's 
lap.' ^ Next comes childhood, which continues until the 
pupil is twelve, and for this is to be organized the 'ver- 
nacular,' or elementary, school. From that time up to 
eighteen comes the period of adolescence, with its * Latin/ 
or secondary, school. Finally, during youth, from eight- 
een to twenty-four, the 'academy,' or university, to- 
gether with travel, should be the means of education. 
As to the distribution and scope of these institutions, 
Comenius declares : — 



"A mother school should exist in every house, a vernacular 
school in every hamlet and village, a Latin school in every city, 
and a university in every kingdom or in every province. The 
mother school and the vernacular school embrace all the young 
of both sexes. The Latin school gives a more thorough education 
to those who aspire higher than the workshop ; while the univer- 
sity trains up the teachers and learned men of the future, that 
our churches, schools, and states may never lack suitable leaders.'* 

Hence only those of the greatest ability, 'the flower of 
mankind,' were to go to the university. "A public 



1 Chaps. XXVII-XXXI. 

2 This was known as Schola Materni Gremii in the Latin version. 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 39 

examination should be held for the students who leave 
the Latin school, and from its results the masters may 
decide which of them should be sent to the university and 
which should enter the other occupations of life. Those 
who are selected will pursue their studies, some choosing 
theology, some politics, and some medicine, in accordance 
with their natural inclination, and with the needs of the 
Church and of the State.'' 

Such an organization of schools as that suggested by 
Comenius would tend to bring about the custom of edu- 
cating according to ability, rather than social status, and 
would thus enable any people to secure the benefit of 
all their genius. It was a genuine 'ladder' system of A 'ladder' 
education, open to all, and leading from the kindergarten education, 
through the university, such as has been commended by 
Huxley in speaking of the American schools. At the 
day that Comenius proposed it, this organization was 
some three centuries in advance of the times. Such an 
idea of equal opportunities for all could have been pos- 
sible in the seventeenth century only as the educational 
outgrowth of a religious attitude like that qf Comenius, 
and may well have been promoted in his case by the 
simple, democratic spirit of the little band of Christians 
whose leader he was.^ 

^ In the old cemeteries of the Moravian communities of the United 
States, the departed lie side by side without distinction in regard to 
position, wealth, or color. The tombstones are laid flat upon the graves, 



40 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

The Pansophic College and the Encyclopaedic Courses 
of Study 

A coopera- But beyond the university, which, like the lower schools, 

tive college of . , , . . . ^ » •, i ■, 

investigation was to make teaching its chief function, Comemus held 

'Sdwk^^^ it to be important that somewhere in the world there 

Sc oiarum. should be a Schola Scholarum or Collegium Didacticum, 

which should be devoted to scientific investigation. 

Through this pansophic college, learned men from all 

nations might cooperate, and, he holds, — 

"These men should . . . spread the light of wisdom through- 
out the human race with greater success than has hitherto been 
attained, and benefit humanity by new and useful inventions. 
For this no single man and no single generation is sujfficient, and 
it is therefore essential that the work be carried on by many, work- 
ing together and employing the researches of their predecessors as 
a starting-point." 

This pan- This plan of a 'Universal College' for research would 

was to form a secm to be a natural product of the pansophic ideal, which 

to\^he system ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^ ^^ dominate all of the educational theory 

of schools. q£ Comenius. Such an institution would form a logical 

climax to his system of schools, bearing, as he says, the 

same relation to them that the stomach does to the other 

members of the body by "supplying blood, Hfe, and 

and are exactly alike, except for size, so that none in this Christian family 
may appear more prominent than the other. A similar interpretation 
of the Master's 'brotherhood of man' is evidenced in all the Moravian 
social life. . ^ See pp. 35 f . 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 41 

strength to all," for he holds that a training in all sub- 
jects should be given at every stage of education. Such 
universal knowledge, however, Comenius believes, should 
be given only in outline at first, and then more and 
more elaborately and thoroughly as education proceeds. 
The Didactica, accordingly, states : — 

"These different schools are not to deal with different sub- 
jects, but should treat the same subjects in different ways, giving 
instruction in all that can produce true men, true Christians, 
and true scholars; throughout graduating the instruction to the 
age of the pupil and the knowledge that he already possesses. . . . 
In the earlier schools everything is taught in a general and un- 
defined manner, while in those that follow the information is par- 
ticularized and exact; just as a tree puts forth more branches 
and shoots each successive year, and grows stronger and more 
fruitful." 1 

In later chapters of the Didactica and in his works for Even the 
the special stages, Comenius gives the details of the pan- mother 
sophic training in each period of education. Even in the p^fj^^op^^^^ 
mother school, it is expected that the infant shall be 
taught geography, history, and various sciences; gram- 
mar, rhetoric, and dialectic; music, arithmetic, geom- 
etry, and astronomy; and the rudiments of economics, 
politics, ethics, metaphysics, and religion; as well as 
encouraged in sports and the construction of buildings. 
The attainment at this stage is, of course, not expected 

1 Chap. XXVII, 4-5. This is practically the modern German 
method of teaching, known as that of 'concentric circles.' 



42 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



So the ver- 
nacular school 
is to afford 
instruction in 
all subjects, 
in case the 
pupil can go 
no further. 



The Latin 
school offers 
four lan- 
guages, but 
continues 
this encyclo- 
paedic train- 
ing. 



to be as formidable as the names of the subjects sound. 
It is to consist merely in understanding simple causal, 
temporal, spatial, and numerical relations; in distin- 
guishing sun, moon, and stars, hills, valleys, lakes, and 
rivers, and animals and plants; in learning to express 
oneself, and in acquiring proper habits. It is, in fact, 
very much Hke the training of the modern kindergarten. 

Similarly, the vernacular school is to afford more 
advanced instruction in all literature, morals, and reli- 
gion that will be of value throughout life, in case the pupil 
can go no further. The course is to include, beside the 
elements, morals, religion, and music, everyday civil 
government and economics, history and geography, 
with especial reference to the pupiFs own country, and 
a general knowledge of the mechanic arts. All these 
studies are to be given in the native tongue, since it would 
take too long to acquire the Latin, and those who are 
to go on will learn Latin more readily for having a wide 
knowledge of things to which they have simply to apply 
new names instead of those of the vernacular. 

The Latin school, while including four langug,ges, — 
' the vernacular, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, is also to 
continue this encyclopaedic training. The seven liberal 
arts are to be taught in more formal fashion, and consider- 
able work is to be given in physics, geography, chronology, 
history, ethics, and theology. In his description of the 
pansophic school thr.c he undertook to estabhsh at Patak, 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 43 

Comenius gives an even more specific account of the range 
of knowledge that should be gained in secondary education. 
He maps out seven classes, of which the first three are 
to be called ^philological/ and the other four to be known 
as ^philosophical/ 'logical/ 'political/ and 'theological/ 
respectively. In the philological grades, he indicates 
that Latin is to be taught ; arithmetic, plane and solid 
geometry, and music are to be gradually acquired ; and 
instruction is to be afforded in morality, the catechism, 
the Scriptures, and psalms, hymns, and prayers. So he 
gives exactly the amount of training in mathematics, 
the arts and sciences, and religion that is to appear in 
the next three classes, and arranges that Greek shall be 
studied and Hebrew begun. In the last class, the wide 
range of secular knowledge is to be continued, and such 
theological matters as the relation of souls to God are to 
be discussed. 

Finally, in the case of the university, Comenius main- intheimi- 
tains that "the curriculum should be really universal, student 
and provision should be made for the study of every ^o^e u^^eif 
branch of human knowledge/' but "each student should toaspeaaity, 

^ ^ but a few 

devote his undivided energies to that subject for which should pur- 

^ ^ sue all 

he is evidently suited by nature,'' — theology, medicine, branches, 
law, music, poetry, or oratory. However, "those of 
quite exceptional talent should be urged to pursue all 
the branches of study, that there may always be some 
men whose knowledge is encyclopaedic." 



44 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



One should 
follow the 
'method of 
nature,' 
which accom- 
plishes all 
things "with 
certainty, 
ease, and 
thorough- 



The analogy 
of the bird. 



The Method of Nature 

Thus at every stage of education Comenius believes 
that there should be pansophic instruction. The way in 
which this knowledge is to be acquired, he intends also 
to have in full accord with sense reahsm. He insists that, 
in order to reform the schools of the day, which were 
uninteresting, wasteful of time, and cruel, the 'method 
of nature' must be observed and followed, for "if we wish 
to find a remedy for the defects of Nature, it is in Nature 
herself that we must look for it, since it is certain that 
art can do nothing unless it imitate Nature." He then 
shows how Nature accomplishes all things "with cer- 
tainty, ease, and thoroughness," ^ in what respects the 
schools have deviated from the principles of nature, and 
how they can be rectified only by following her plans. 

These principles concerning the working of nature were, 
however, not established inductively by Comenius, but 
laid down a priori, and were mostly superficial and fanci- 
ful analogies. The following quotation from the First 
Principle that he gives under the 'certainty' of nature, 
may serve as a specimen of his method: — 

"Nature observes a suitable time. For example, a bird that 
wishes to multiply its species, does not set about it in winter, 
when everything is stiff v^^ith cold, nor in summer, when every- 
thing is parched and withered with heat; nor yet in autumn, 
when the vital force of all creatures declines with the sun's declin- 
1 I.e. certo, facile, solide. See Didactica, Chap. XIV-XVIII. 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 45 

ing rays, and a new winter with hostile mien is approaching; 
but in spring, when the sun brings back hfe and strength to all." 

The schools deviate from this method of nature, he 
claims in the first place, because "the right time for men- 
tal exercise is not chosen," and to rectify the error, — 

" (I) The education of men should be commenced in the spring- 
time of life, that is to say, in boyhood (for boyhood is the equiva- 
lent of spring, youth of summer, manhood of autumn, and old 
age of winter). (II) The morning hours are the most suitable 
for study, for here again the morning is the equivalent of spring, 
midday of summer, the evening of autumn, and the night of 
winter." 

It is not remarkable that, with all his realistic tend- Theinduc- 

. . tive method 

encies, Comemus did not employ the mductive method was not em- 
to any extent. He had inherited the notion that not all extent. °^^^ 
truth can be secured through the senses or by reason. 
He claimed that even Bacon's method could not be ap- 
plied to the entire universe, all of which is included in 
his pansophia. There are, he held, three media for 
knowledge, — the senses, the intellect, and revelation, 
and "error will cease if the balance between them is 
preserved." The natural sciences were young in the 
day of Comenius, and he was very limited in his grasp 
of their content and method. It is a sufficient merit 
that, imbibing the spirit of sense realism, he had for 
the first time in history applied anything like induction 
to teaching, and produced the most systematic and 



46 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



How the 
principles for 
following na- 
ture may be 
made effec- 
tive; the 
application 
of the general 
method to 
the sciences, 
arts, lan- 
guages, mo- 
rality, and 
piety. 



Impression 
must be in- 
sured by ex- 
pression. 



thorough work upon educational method that had been 
known. 

After working out in the Didactica these general prin- 
ciples for following nature, Comenius renders his work 
much more practical by showing how such principles 
may be made effective in the ordinary schools. He 
then applies his general method to the specific teaching 
of various branches of knowledge, — sciences, arts (in- 
cluding reading, writing, singing, composition, and 
logic), and languages, and to instruction in morality and 
piety. On this practical side of his method, he appHes 
more fully the induction of Bacon. After showing the 
necessity for careful observation in obtaining a knowledge 
of the sciences, he gives nine useful precepts for their 
study, and while they are stated as general principles, 
they are clearly the inductive result of his own experience 
as a teacher. Similarly he formulates rules for instruc- 
tion in the arts, languages, morality, and piety. The 
description of special method in sciences, too, is thor- 
oughly in harmony with realism in its insistence that, 
in order to make a genuine impression upon the mind, 
one must deal with realities rather than books. The 
objects themselves, or, where this is not possible, such 
representations of them as can be conveyed by copies, 
models, and pictures, must be studied. In the case of 
the languages, arts, morality, and piety, impression must 
be insured by expression. ^'What has to be done, must 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 47 

be learned by doing. '^ Reading, writing, and singing 
are to be acquired by practice. The use of foreign lan- 
guages affords a better means of learning them than do 
the rules of grammar. Practice, good example, and 
sympathetic guidance teach us virtue better than do 
precepts. Piety is instilled by meditation, prayer, 
and self-examination. 

As would be expected from the threefold interrelated The study of 
aim and the encyclopaedic content of education, Come- be correlated 
nius everywhere in his method intends that all subjects ^jgcts^^^ 
shall be correlated. In particular, he holds : — 

"The study of languages, especially in youth, should be joined 
to that of objects, that our acquaintance with the objective world 
and with language, that is to say, our knowledge of facts and our 
power to express them, may progress side by side." ^ 

In the matter of discipline, as a natural accompani- Discipline 

, r -1 . . , . J.1 J /-« • should be ad- 

ment of his improvements m method, Comemus was ministered 
in advance of his time. He holds that the end of dis- m^Jl^Jb^j-each 
cipline is to prevent a recurrence of the fault, and it 
must be inflicted in such a way that the pupil will recog- 
nize that it is for his own good. Severe punishment 
must not be administered for a failure in studies, but 
only for a moral breach, and exhortation and reproof 
are to be used before resorting to more stringent meas- 
ures. 

1 This principle, it has been seen (pp. 28 ff.)> Comenius carried out in 
his series of Latin textbooks. 



48 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



To sense real- 
ism Come- 
nius added 
the endow- 
ment of 
piety. 



Education 
should be in 
harmony 
with one's 
nature, and 
should be ; 
universal.^ 



Physical edu- 
cation and 
sense training 
should be 
part of the 
course. 



All subjects 
should be 
correlated. 



The Influence of Comenius upon Education 

Such was the work of Comenius, who may in the fullest 
sense be considered a great educational reformer and 
the real progenitor of modern education. His position 
grew out of sense realism, but to the encyclopaedic con- 
tent and the natural method of Bacon, Ratich, and 
others, which he rendered more elaborate, consistent, 
and rational, he added his natural endowment of innate 
piety and a sense of the 'brotherhood of man.' Come- 
nius made it evident that education should be a natural, 
not an artificial and traditional, process in harmony 
with man's very constitution and destiny, and that a 
well-rounded training for complete living should be every- 
where afforded to all, without regard to sex, social posi- 
tion, or wealth, because of their very humanity. He 
outlined a regular system of schools and described their 
grading, and was the first to suggest a training for very 
young children. He held that bodily vigor and physi- 
cal education were essential, and made sei^se training 
an important part of the course. He further broadened 
and enriched the entire curriculum by subordinating 
Latin to the vernacular, and insisting upon geography, 
history, the elements of all arts and sciences, and such 
other studies as would fit one for the activities of life. 
He correlated and coordinated all subjects, and com- 
bined even the training in Latin with a knowledge of 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 49 

real things. This he accomplished through a series of 
textbooks that were a great advance over anything pre- 
viously produced. Thus he greatly contributed to make 
education more effective, interesting, pleasant, and 
natural. 

However, for nearly two centuries Comenius had but Comenius 
little direct effect upon the schools, except for his Ian- fluence upon 
guage methods and his texts. The Janua was trans- Jeprthrough 
lated into a dozen European, and at least three Asiatic, ^^j/g^^^^^^® 
languages ; the Orhis Pictus proved even more popular, 
and went through an almost unHmited number of edi- 
tions in various tongues; and the whole series became 
for many generations the favorite means of introducing 
young people to the study of Latin. But until about 
half a century ago, the work of Comenius as a whole had 
purely an historical interest, and was known almost 
solely through the Orhis Pictus. The great reformer was 
viewed as a fanatic, especially as the pansophic ideal 
turned out to be of only ephemeral interest. Human- 
ism was too thoroughly intrenched to give way at once 
to realism. 

Nevertheless, the principles of Comenius were uncon- but his prin- 

ciplcs helve 

sciously taken up by others and have become the basis of become the 
modern education. Francke was anticipated by Come- of^modem 
nius in suggesting a curriculum that would fit one for ^^^^^^^4\. 
life : before Rousseau, Comenius intimated that the fluenced 

Francke, 

school system should be adapted to the child rather thaji Rousseau, 



50 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

Basedow, the child to the system; Basedow largely modeled his 
Herbart,and encyclopsedic Content and natural method after the 
Froebei. Qyj)is Pictus ; Pcstalozzi revived the universal education, 
love of the child, and object teaching that appear in the 
works of the old bishop ; Herbart's emphasis upon char- 
acter and upon scientific method and curriculum seem 
like an echo of Comenius; while the kindergarten, 
'self-activity,' and play, suggested by Froebei, had been 
previously outlined by the Moravian. Hence it hap- 
pened that in the middle of the nineteenth century, when 
the works of Comenius were once more brought to light 
by German investigators, it was discovered that the old 
realist of the seventeenth century had been the first to 
deal with education in a scientific spirit, and work out 
its problems practically in the schools. His evidently 
was the clearest of visions and broadest of intellects. 
WTiile it is easy to criticize him now, in the light of history 
Comenius is a most important individual in the develop- 
ment of modern education. 



COMENIUS AND HIS GREAT DIDACTIC 51 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Sources 

*COMENnjs, J. A. Great Didactic (translated by M. W. Keatinge), 
Orhis Pictus (reprint of C. W. Bardeen), and School 0} Infancy 
(translated by W. S. Monroe). 

II. Authorities 

Adamson, J. W. Pioneers of Modern Education. Chaps. III-V. 

Barnard, H. American Journal of Education. Vol. V, pp. 257- 
298. 

Barnard, H. German Teachers and Educators. Pp. 347-388. 

Browning, O. Educational Theories. Chap. IV. 

*Butler, N. M. The Place of Comenius in the History of Educa- 
tion. 

CoMPAYRE, G. History of Pedagogy. Pp. 122-137. 

Davidson, T. History of Education. Pp. 193-197. 

*Hanus, p. H. The Permanent Influence of Comenius. {Educa- 
tional Aims and Values, VIII.) 

Laurie, S. S. Educational Opinion since the Renaissance, Chap. 
II. 

*Laurie, S. S. John Amos Comenius. 

*MoNROE, W. S. Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational 
Reform. 

MuNROE, J. P. The Educational Ideal. Chap. IV. 

*QuiCK, R. H. Educational Reformers. Chap. X. 



CHAPTER V 



JOHN LOCKE AND EDUCATION AS DISCIPLINE 



Locke's theo- 
ries should be 
estimated by 
his Conduct 
of the Under- 
standing, 
rather than 
by his 
Thoughts 
concerning 
Education. 



The educational position of John Locke (1632-1704) 
is usually misinterpreted. The general estimate of his 
theory is taken from his work entitled Some Thoughts 
concerning Education. This treatise grew out of his 
experience as a private tutor in the family of the Earl 
of Shaftesbury, and consists of a set of practical sug- 
gestions for the education of a gentleman, rather 
than a scholar. The recommendations contained in the 
Thoughts are consequently somewhat at variance with 
the underlying principles of Locke's philosophy, as given 
in his famous Essay concerning the Human Understand- 
ing, and with the intellectual training suggested in his 
other educational work, Conduct of the Understanding, 
which was originally an additional book and an applica- 
tion of the Essay. 



Locke as a * Humanistic '-* Social * Realist 



If the Thoughts alone is read, Locke will naturally be 

humanistic '-'sociar realist. 



In the 
Thoughts he 

appears to be Considered in the main a 

'humanistic'- like Montaiguc, but also as leaning somewhat toward 

reaUst. ^^^ *sense realism' of Comenius. Like Montaigne, 

52 



JOHN LOCKE AND EDUCATION AS DISCIPLINE 53 

Locke holds that book education and intellectual training 
are of less importance than the development of character 
and poKsh. After treating bodily education at consider- 
able length, he states the aims of education in the order 
of their value as "Virtue, Wisdom {i.e. worldly wis- 
dom), Breeding, and Learning,^' and later adds: — 

^ "Learning must be had, but in the second place, as subservient Character is 
only to greater Qualities. Seek out somebody that may know ^g^J^ or.^ 
how discreetly to frame his Manners : Place him in Hands where tance in edu- 
you may, as much as possible, secure his Innocence, cherish and 
nurse up the good, and gently correct and weed out any bad 
Inclinations, and settle in him good Habits. This is the main 
Point, and this provided for. Learning may be had into the Bar- 



cation, 



gain." 



Such a training, Locke agrees with Montaigne, can The proper 
be secured only through personal attention, and the young comes 
gentleman should be given a tutor when his father can- tutorfather 
not properly look after his training. Likewise, he feels ^^^ schools, 
that, ^'to form a young Gentleman as he should be, 'tis 
fit his Governor should himself be well-bred, understand- 
ing the Ways of Carriage and Measures of CiviHty in all 
the variety of Persons, Times, and Places ; and keep his 
Pupil, as much as his Age requires, constantly to the 
Observation of them." This private training is infi- 
nitely to be preferred, Locke holds, to that ''from such a 
troop of Play-fellows as schools usually assemble from 
Parents of all kinds." Locke also beheves, with Mon- 



54 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Travel at the 
right time. 



Locke is op- 
posed to the 
narrow hu- 
raanism, but 
thinks Latin 
necessary to 
a gentleman, 
and that it 
should be 
learned by 
speaking. 



taigne and Milton, in foreign travel as a means of broad 
education and adaptation to living. He thinks, however, 
that it should not, as it usually did, come at the critical 
period between sixteen and twenty-one, but either earher, 
when the boy is better able to learn foreign languages, or 
later, when he can intelligently observe the laws and cus- 
toms of other countries. 

Locke approaches the earlier realists even more closely 
in showing scant respect for the narrow humanism and 
tedious methods of the grammar school. He declares 
specifically : — 

"When I consider what an ado is made about a little Latin 
and Greek, how many Years are spent in it, and what a Noise and 
Business it makes to no purpose, I can hardly forbear thinking 
that the Parents of children still live in Fear of the Schoolmaster's 
Rod, which they look on as the only Instrument of Education; 
as a language or two to be its whole Business." 

Yet Locke agrees with Montaigne again in thinking 
that Latin is, after all, '' absolutely necessary to a Gentle- 
man," but that "'tis a Wonder Parents, when they have 
had the Experience in French, should not think (it) ought 
to be learned the same way, by talking and reading," ^ 
instead of through grammar, theme writing, versifica- 
tion, and memorizing long passages. Greek, however, 
Locke does not regard as essential to a gentleman's edu- 

1 When conversation is impossible, he recommends the use of inter- 
linear translations. 



JOHN LOCKE AND EDUCATION AS DISCIPLINE 55 

cation, although he may in manhood take it up by him- 
self. 

As a further part of ^intellectual education/ Locke 
holds that, ''besides what is to be had from Study and 
Books, there are other Accomplishments necessary for a 
Gentleman, '^ — dancing, horseback riding, fencing, and Dancing, 
wrestling. The pupil should also, he contends, ^^ learn riXg.lfenc- 
a Trade, a manual Trade; nay, two or three, but one more JJ^' ^^^^ 
particularly." This the future gentleman should ac- ^^^^^• 
quire, not with the idea of ever engaging in it, but for 
the sake of health and of ''easing the wearied Part by 
Change of Business." ^ 

Locke as a * Sense Realist ' 

But there are also elements throughout the Thoughts But Locke 
and to some extent in the Conduct, where Locke seems to Juen^ced S- 
have been affected by the concrete material and interest- !^^^f! ^l^' 

•' ism to the 

ing methods of Comenius, the great 'sense' realist, as extent of in- 
troducing a 
clearly as he was elsewhere by the earlier realism of Mon- utilitarian 

_,.,,., 1 r T ^^^ encyclo- 

taigne. Even m the subjects he recommends for the p^dic curricu- 
education of a gentleman, where he was especially follow- bS'nn^ng^ 
ing Montaigne, Locke makes a selection, utilitarian in ^rlJa^c^uiar 
nature and wide in ransre, that reminds one of the ency- studies and 

the languages 

clopaedic advice of Bacon, Ratich, and Comenius. He of one's near- 
est neighbors, 

1 Rousseau, however, when he borrowed the suggestion, put it upon the 
economic ground that if the pupil lost his fortune, he would have the trade 
to fall back upon. ^ 



56 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



and in his 
pleasant 
methods of 
teaching. 



He also holds 
that impres- 
sions are 



also resembles the sense realists in desiring to begin with 
the vernacular studies, which with him are reading, 
writing, drawing, and possibly shorthand. And when 
the pupil is able to take up a foreign language, Locke 
believes, with Comenius, that this should not be Latin, 
but the language of his nearest neighbor, — in the case of 
the English boy, French. After the neighboring lan- 
guage has been learned, Latin may be studied. Like the 
Moravian, too, Locke believes in correlating content 
studies with the study of languages. He suggests : — 

"At the same time that he is learning French and Latin, a 
Child, as has been said, may also be enter'd in Arithmetick, Geog- 
raphy, Chronology, History, and Geometry, too. For if these be 
taught him in French or Latin, when he begins once to understand 
either of these tongues, he will get a Knowledge in these sciences, 
and the Languages to boot." 

In the matter of method also, Locke reminds one of 
Comenius and the other sense realists. He believes that 
"contrivances might be made to teach Children to read, 
whilst they thought they were only playing," and makes 
the suggestion of pasting the letters of the alphabet upon 
the sides of the dice. And further, — "when by these 
gentle Ways he begins to read, some easy pleasant Book, 
suited to his Capacity, should be put into his Hands, 
wherein the entertainment he finds might draw him on." 

Moreover, Locke is most thoroughly a sense reahst in 
his theory of knowledge and the pedagogical recommenda- 



JOHN LOCKE AND EDUCATION AS DISCIPLINE 57 

tions that grow out of it. He holds that impressions made through 
are made through the senses by observation, and are observation^ 
only combined afterward by reflection.^ The develop- 
ment, therefore, of such knowledge to the most complex 
ideas comes through induction, and in this way the 
sciences should be studied. In the Conduct,^ he 
states : — 

"The surest way for a learner, in this as in all other cases, is 
not to advance by jumps, and large strides; let that which he 
sets himself to learn next be indeed the next ; i.e., as nearly con- '-^""^ 
joined with what he knows already as it is possible; let it be 
distinct, but not remote from it ; let it be new and what he did 
not know before, that understanding may advance ; but let it be 
as little at once as may be, that its advances may be clear and 
sure." 

It is not surprising that, with such pleasant methods, DisdpUne 
Locke, like the realists generally, declares in his Thoughts ^nd, and not 
that "great Severity of Punishment does but very little tuli'femSi 
Good, nay, great Harm in Education." ^ He prefers 
^^ Esteem or Disgrace'' as the proper means of discipline, 
and maintains, as Comenius did, that corporal punish- 
ment should be for moral rather than intellectual re- 
missness. 

* This, of course, is brought out more clearly in his philosophical work. 
Essay concerning the Human Understanding. 

2 § XXXIX. 

3 His ideas in the Conduct would point to quite a different type of 
method and discipline. 



ness. 



58 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Locke as the Advocate of * Formal Discipline' 

Locke's real Lockc, howcver, cannot be judged to be primarily a 

position, 

however, is realist of either the 'humanistic' or the 'sense' type. 

mental train- His real attitude in education must be taken chiefly from 

^Conducf\nd ^^^ Couduct, and read in the light of his rationalistic 

^^f h"'^^^rf ^'^^ philosophy, which, in turn, is directly connected with 

phy, as his vicw-poiut in religion and politics. While Locke's 

given in the 

Essay. auccstry was Puritan, this seems to have had little in- 

fluence upon his life and philosophy, except as he was 
ever the advocate of civil, religious, and philosophic 
freedom. This tendency was increased by his close per- 
sonal relations with the noted liberal. Lord Shaftesbury. 
In accordance with his convictions, Locke wrote two 
Treatises on Government, three Letters on Toleration, and 
an essay upon the Reasonableness of Christianity. Each 
of these works vigorously opposed absolutism and dog- 
matism, but they are all simply appHcations of the 
thought underlying his great Essay concerning the Human 
Under sta7iding. In this treatise, which was the product 
of his reflection during a score of years, he holds, as in the 
more special works, to the fruitlessness of traditional 
opinions and empty phraseology. He rejects all 'innate 
ideas,' or axiomatic principles, and charges that this 
tenet was imposed by masters and teachers upon their 
followers, "to take them off their own reason and judg- 
ment, and put them on beHeving and taking them upon 



\ 



-A 



JOHN LOCKE AND EDUCATION AS DISCIPLINE 59 

trust without further examination." All knowledge, 
claims the Essay ^ comes rather from experience, and the 
mind is like '^ white paper, or wax, to be molded and "^ 
fashioned as one pleases." ^ On it ideas are painted by 
'sensation' and 'reflection.' Locke further finds it 
necessary to determine, when the ideas are once in mind, 
what they tell us in the way of truth. He holds that 
"knowledge is real only so far as there is a conformity 
between our ideas and the reahties of things," and that, 
as we cannot always be sure of this correspondence, 
much of our knowledge is probable and not certain. We 
must, therefore, in each case carefuUy consider the grounds 
of probability, — ''the conformity of anything with our 
own knowledge, observation, and the testimony of 
others." 

To train the mind to make the proper discriminations He holds in 
in these matters, Locke claims that a formal discipKne thltthe"^ 
must be furnished by education. This attitude is made ^d, like the 

J body, grows 

clear in his posthumous educational work, Conduct of the through exer- 
Under standing. As regards the aim of intellectual edu- 
cation, he holds in his work : — 

"As it is in the body, so it is in the mind; practice makes it 
what it is, and most even of those excellences which are looked on 
as natural endowments wiU be found, when examined into more 
narrowly, to be the product of exercise, and to be raised to that 
pitch only by repeated actions. Few men are from their youth 

^ This is his famous doctrine of the tabtda rasa. 



6o GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

accustomed to strict reasoning, and to trace the dependence of 
any truth in a long train of consequences to its remote principles 
and to observe its connection ; and he that by frequent practice 
has not been used to this employment of his understanding, it is 
no more wonder that he should not, when he is grown into years, 
be able to bring his mind to it, than that he should not be able 
on a sudden to grave and design, dance on the ropes, or write a 
good hand, who has never practiced either of them." 

Concerning the best studies for producing this mental 
gymnastic, Locke says : — 

and that the "Would you have a man reason well, you must use him to it 

tic?for rea-^" ^^^i^^^s, exercise his mind in observing the connection of ideas. 

soningis and following them in train. Nothing does this better than 

mathematics mathematics, which therefore I think should be taught all those 

who have the time and opportunity, not so much to make them 

mathematicians as to make them reasonable creatures . . ., that 

having got the way of reasoning, which that study necessarily 

brings the mind to, they might be able to transfer it to other 

parts of knowledge as they shall have occasion." 

He also ad- So Lockc advlscs a wide range of sciences, not for the 

vises a range . . , , 

of sciences to Sake of the realistic knowledge obtained, but for mtel- 

disnosG the 

mind so as to lectual discipline, "to accustom our minds to all sorts of 
of any^sci- i^eas and the proper ways of examining their habitudes 
ence. j^j^^j relations; . . . not to make them perfect in any 

one of the sciences, but so to open and dispose their 
minds as may best make them capable of any, when they 
shall apply themselves to it." Similarly, he implies that 
reading may become a means of discrimination. " Those 



JOHN LOCKE AND EDUCATION AS DISCIPLINE 6i 

who have got this faculty, one may say, have got the true 
key of books, and the clue to lead them through the mize- 
maze of variety of opinions and authors to truth and 
certainty." 

The same disciplinary conception of the aim of educa- similarly, in 
tion underlies most of Locke's recommendations on moral he^deciares ^ 
and physical training in the Thoughts. When in this f^^fXt""' 
work he comes to treat moral education, he declares at obtained by 

denying 
the start : — one's desires, 

"As the strength of the Body lies chiefly in being able to en- 
dure Hardships, so also does that of the Mind. And the great 
Principle and Foundation of all Virtue and Worth is plac'd in 
this; That a Man is able to deny himself his own Desires, cross 
his own IncHnations, and purely follow what Reason directs as 
Best, tho' the Appetite lean the other Way. . . . This Power is 
to be got and improv'd by Custom, made easy and familiar by an 
early Practice. If, therefore, I might be heard, I would advise 
that, contrary to the ordinary Way, Children should be us'd to 
submit their Desires, and go without their Longings, even from 
their very Cradles. The first Thing they should learn to know, 
should be that they were not to have any Thing because it pleased 
them, but because it was thought fit for them." 

Hence, in Locke's opinion, morality comes about 
through submitting the natural desires to the control of 
reason, and thereby forming virtuous habits. In this 
light he discusses various virtues and vices as they 
occur to him, and insists that, in order that the proper 
habits may be ingrained in them, children should 



62 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



recognize the absolute authority of their fathers and 
tutors.^ ^d^k 

The ideal upon which Locke bases his ^ysical train- 
ing is even more fully that of formal discipline, and has 
since been generally known as the ^hardening process/ 
His advice concerning this part of a pupil's training 
might be abridged as follows : — • 

"Most Children's Constitutions are either spoil' d or at least 
harm'd by Cockering and Tenderness. The first Thing to be taken 
Care of is that Children be not too warmly clad or cover'd, Winter 
or Summer. The Face when we are born, is no less tender than 
any other Part of the Body. 'Tis Use alone hardens it, and 
makes it more able to endure the Cold. I will also advise his 
(i. e. the child's) Feet to be wash'd every Day in cold Water, and 
to have his Shoes so thin that they might leak and let in Water, 
whenever he comes near it. I should advise him to play in the 
Wind and Sun without a Hat. His Diet ought to be very plain 
and simple, — if he must needs have Flesh, let it be but once a 
Day, and of one Sort at a Meal without other Sauce than Hunger. 
His Meals should not be kept constantly to an Hour. Let his 
Bed be hard, and rather Quilts than feathers, — hard Lodging 
strengthens the Parts." 



5tea b^ 



Thus the intellectual education suggested by Locke 
in the Conduct is evidently very different in content and 

1 Strangely enough, Locke, despite his doctrine of a tabida rasa, here 
recognizes native tendencies in the child, but they seem to be all hostile 
to moral development, and must be 'suppressed/ 'weeded out/ and 
'cured.' Whereas the good elements have in general to be 'imprinted,' 
'implanted,' and 'instilled' from the outside. 



JOHN LOCKE AND EDUCATION AS DISCIPLINE 63 

method from that in his Thoughts, by which he is usually theory is that 
measured. And his real educational theory is clearly discipline.' 
exhibited in the mental training advocated by the former 
work and in the positions taken on physical and moral 
training in the latter. The idea he gives here of training 
the mind by means of mathematics and other subjects 
so as to cultivate * general power/ together with his 
'denial of desires' in moral education and the ^hardening 
process ' in physical training, would seem to make Locke 
the first ^ writer to advocate the doctrine of 'formal dis- 
cipline.' 

The Influence of * Formal Discipline ' upon Education 

Adherents of this theory hold that the study of certain 
subjects yields results out of all proportion to the effort 
expended, and gives a power that may be applied in any 
direction. It has been argued by formal discipHnarians, Position of 
accordingly, that every one should take these all- disdpUnari- 
important studies, regardless of his interest, abihty, or pur- 
pose in life, and that all who are unfitted for these partic- 
ular subjects are not quaHfied for the higher duties and 
responsibilities, and are unworthy of educational con- 
sideration. These subjects are usually held to be the 
classic languages to improve the 'faculty of memory,' 
and mathematics to sharpen the 'faculty of reason,' 

1 With possibly the exception of such allusions as appear in Bacon's 
famous essay, Of Studies. 



ans. 



64 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



The effect of 
formal dis- 
cipline upon 
the -English 
grammar and 
public 
schools, and 
the univer- 
sities; the 
German 
'Gymnasien' ; 
and the high 
schools, col- 
leges, and 
universities 
in the 
United 
States. 



although strenuous efforts have been made by the scien- 
tists and others ^ to meet this argument by pointing out 
the 'formal discipline' in their own favorite studies. 

This principle of formal discipline has had a tremendous 
effect upon each stage of education in practically every 
country and during every period almost up to the last 
decade, when a decided reaction began.^ The formal 
classicism of the EngHsh grammar and pubHc schools 
and universities, and of the German Gymnasien, afford 
excellent examples of the influence of this doctrine. 
While in the United States a newer and more flexible 
society has enabled changes to be more readily made, 
but a quarter of a century ago Greek, Latin, and mathe- 
matics made up most of the course in high schools, col- 
leges, and universities, and until very recently the 
effete portion of arithmetic and the husks of formal 



1 See Proceedings of the International Congress of Charities, 1893, 
Section VII, where E. B. Andrews makes this argument even for the 
study of Sociology. 

2 See Adams, Herbartian Psychology, Chap. V; Bagley, Educative 
Process, Chaps. XIII-XIV; Heck, Mental Discipline; Home, Training 
of the Will (School Review, XIII, pp. 616-628); O'Shea, Educa- 
tion as Adjustment, Chaps. XIII and XIV; Thorndike, Educational 
Psychology, Chap. VIII; Wardlow, Is Mental Discipline a Myth? 
(Educational Review, XXXV, pp. 22-32). Read also the more recent 
investigations, which tend to show that we have reacted too far. See 
the contributions of Angell, Pillsbury, Judd, and Ruediger in Educa- 
tional Review, XXXVI, pp. 1-43, and 364-372, and Winch in the British 
Journal of Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 284-293. 



JOHN LOCKE AND EDUCATION AS DISCIPLINE 65 

grammar were defended in our elementary education 
upon the score of 'formal discipline.' But, with the 
growth of science, the abandonment of the 'faculty'^ 
psychology and the development of educational theory, 
the curriculum has ever3rwhere been broadened, and the 
content of studies rather than the process of acquisition 
has come to be emphasized. 

It should, however, be recognized that Locke did not Yet Locke's 
defend, but vigorously assailed, the grammatical and dpHnewat 
linguistic grind in the English public schools. His of^lhetuWk 
attitude toward formal discipline sprang from his desire schools, but 

^ ° arose from 

to root out the traditional and false, rather than to sup- ^s desire to 

. . . . , - , . root out the 

port the narrow humanistic curricula of the times. His traditional 

philosophy and educational doctrines grew out of his is connected 

purpose to aid the cause of liberty and reason, and his ^tj^nafism 

esteem for mathematics as an intellectual training shows °^ Descartes 

'^ and the skep- 

his connection with Descartes.^ It was, moreover, his ticismof 

' ' Hume. 

doctrine that, developed to an extreme, eventuated in 
the destructive philosophy of the French rationalists 
and the skepticism of Hume. While, therefore, Locke's 
imagery of the tabula rasa and his disciplinary theory 

^ See Graves, History of Education before the Middle Ages, pp. 196 and 
213, for the origin and meaning of the 'faculty' psychology. 

2 Locke had first been stimulated by Descartes, who was reacting from 
his Jesuit traditions. The effort to strip off preconceived opinions is 
similar in both, and while Locke rejects the 'innate ideas,' to whose cer- 
tainty Descartes holds, he also believes in mathematics as the best means 
of disciplining the mind and of getting rid of the false. 

F 



66 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

have had an influence far beyond his times, it can hardly 
be supposed that he took that position in conscious sup- 
port of the conservative formal education of the English 
schools. He was in this, as in all his positions, a radical 
and a rationalist. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Sources 

*LoCKE, John. Some Thoughts concerning Education (edited by 
Quick) ; Conduct of the Understanding (edited by Fowler). 

II. Authorities 

Barnard, H. American Journal of Education. Vol. V, pp. 209- 
222. . 

Browning, O. History of Educational Theories. Chap. VII. *^ 

CoMPAYRE, G. History of Pedagogy. Pp. 194-2 11. 

Davidson, T. History of Education. Pp. 197-208. 

*FowLER, T. Locke {English Men of Letters Series). 

Frazer, a. C. Locke. 

*Laurie, S. S. Educational Opinion since the Renaissance. 
Chaps. XIII-XV. 

MuNROE, J. P. The Educational Ideal. Chap. V. 

*QuiCK, R. H. Educational Reformers. Chap. XIII. 



CHAPTER VI 

FRANCKE AND HIS INSTITUTIONS 

Corresponding to the development of Puritanism 
in England, a great religious revival also began in Ger- 
many toward the close of the seventeenth century. In 
the midst of the formalism into which Lutheranism had 
fallen, there arose a set of theologians who were con- 
vinced of the need of moral and religious reform, and 
desired to make religion a matter of life rather than of 
creed. 

Spener and Francke 

Among their number early appeared Philipp Jakob Spenerand 
Spener (1635-1705), a pastor in Frankfurt, who insti- pietism. 
tuted at his home a series of so-called collegia pietatis 
('religious assemblies'), in which were formulated propo- 
sitions of reform. The views here represented seem to 
have been borrowed largely from Puritan writers. They 
did not advocate any new doctrine, but simply subordi- 
nated orthodoxy to spiritual religion and practical moral- 
ity. The movement spread rapidly, and made a great 
impression throughout Germany. The old orthodox 
theologians and pastors were grievously offended, and, 

67 



68 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Francke's 
education 
and early 
career. 



from the name of the gatherings, the reformers became 
known in reproach as Pietists} 

From the standpoint of education, however, the most 
important Pietist was August Hermann Francke (1663- 
1727). Francke received an excellent education at the 
Gotha gymnasium, where he became acquainted with 
the reforms of Ratich and Comenius, and at the uni- 
versities of Erfurt, Kiel, and Leipzig, in which he studied 
theology and the languages, especially Greek and He- 
brew. He first came into notice at Leipzig, where he 
had become a Privatdocent,^ by starting a Pietist society 
for careful discussion and pious application of the Scrip- 
tures. His attitude aroused the ill-will of the older 
professors and caused his dismissal. After a brief but 
stormy career as a preacher at Erfurt and as a teacher 
at Hamburg, he assisted in founding the University of 
Halle, which became the center from which Pietism was 
diffused throughout Germany. 



Through his 
pastorate at j 
Glaucha, he 
was led to 
found an 



Organization of Francke's Institutions 

Here in 1692 Francke became a professor of the Greek 
and Hebrew languages, but was afterward transferred 
to his favorite subject of theology. To make ends meet, 

1 Like the names Puritan and Methodist, however, it was afterward 
adopted as a term of honor. 

2 In the German universities a Privatdocent is not, like a professor, in 
receipt of a regular salary, but is given a percentage of the fees of the 
students that attend his lectures. 



FRANCKE AND HIS INSTITUTIONS 69 

he was also appointed pastor in the suburb of Glaucha, 'Armen-~ 
and through this latter position his real work as an edu- 'Burger- 
cator began. While catechizing the children who came '^waisen-^ ^ 
to the parsonage to beg, he was shocked at their ignorance, ^^^^^^^-^ 
poverty, and immorality, and resolved to raise them 
from their degradation by education. One day early in 
1695, upon finding a contribution of seven guldens * 
in his alms box, he started an Armenschule ('school 
for the poor') in his own house, and engaged a student 
of the university as its teacher. As he was soon re- 
quested to open another school for those whose parents 
could afford to pay, he rented two rooms in a neigh- 
boring building, — one for the Armenschule and one for 
the Burgerschule ('school for citizens'). Further, be- 
lieving it of advantage to remove orphans from their old 
associations, he established a third institution for them, 
called the W aisenanstalt ('orphanage'), and later he sub- 
divided all three organizations upon the basis of sex. 

Still in this same year, he undertook for a wealthy He also 

founded 

widow of noble family to educate her son together with secondary 
some other boys, and his work in this direction grew 'Padago- 

1 The silver Gulden, or ' florin,' worth about forty cents, would seem to 
be meant here. $2.80 seems a small sum with which to ' found a school/ 
but in Francke's time a coin of the present value of a dollar had a very 
large purchasing power. With the contribution, we learn, Francke pur- 
chased two thalers' (about $1.50) worth of books and employed a poor 
student to teach the children two hours daily. For the further support 
of the school he declared he would ' trust God.' 



70 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

gium,' rapidly into a secondary school, which came to be known 

Ladnat' ^^ the Pddagogium. Two years later he started another 

sJhuie^'^and Secondary course for the purpose of preparing the brighter 
'Reaischuie,' boys from the Orphan and poor schools for the university, 
and this was called the Lafeinische Hauptschule, or 
Schola Latina, to distinguish it from the elementary 
schools, in which no foreign language was taught. As 
early as 1698, Francke likewise wished to organize a 
boarding-school where girls whose parents could afford 
it might obtain a training in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and 
other secondary subjects, and while at first this enter- 
prise was on a small scale, within a dozen years the 
Hohere Tochterschule ('higher school for girls') became 
a regular part of his system. Moreover, through his 
colleague, Semler, a secondary school of a more practical 
type, called the Realschule, in which the pure and ap- 
plied sciences were taught, became associated in 1708 
with the institutions of Francke. 

In addition to these elementary and secondary schools, , 
Francke was also enabled, through a gift of four thou- 
anda'Semi- ^^^^ marks ($iooo), to institute in 1695 a Seminarium 
narium Prae- PycBceptorum (' Seminary for teachers ') , in which the 

ceptorum. x \ ./ 

theological students that taught in his schools might be 
trained. These students practiced teaching for two 
hours each day under the supervision and criticism of 
inspectors, and were boarded at a Freitisch ('free table'), 
established by means of the endowment. 



FRANCKE AND HIS INSTITUTIONS 71 

His Religious Aim in Education 

Even if we were not acquainted with the origin of His Christian 

Pietism, or with the practice in Francke's schools, the holds ^°^ 

explicit statements in his Brief and Simple Treatise on thSil/aim^ 

Christian Education ^ would make it evident that the ^^^ declares 

that the pu- 

educational aim underlying all his work was primarily pii's station 

must be con- 

religious training. "The chief object in view," says sidered. 
Francke, "is that all children may be instructed above 
all things in the vital knowledge of God and Christ, and 
be initiated into the principles of true religion." He 
goes so far as to insist : — 

, "Only the pious man is a good member of society. Without 
sincere piety, all knowledge, all prudence, all worldly culture, is 
more hurtful than useful, and we are never secure against its 
misuse." 

His position is, therefore, a real return to the Reforma- 
tion emphasis upon faith and non-ceremonial worship. 
Nevertheless, it has been clear that he was sufficiently 
affected by the times to found his schools somewhat with 
reference to existing social strata, and he distinctly 
declares, "In all instruction we must keep the pupil's 
station and future calling in mind." 

Course and Methods in His Schools 

Naturally, then, the subject most emphasized in all The Bible 
of Francke's schools was religion. In the elementary chismasma- 

^ The full title is Kurzer und einfdltiger TJnterricht wie die Kinder zur 
wahren GoUseligkeit und Christlichen Klugheit anzufuhren sind. 



72 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



reading and schools, four out of scveii hours each day were given to 
r"the^Scrfp- Bible study, catechism, prayer, and pious observances, 
^^^^^' and the reading and writing were based upon the Scrip- 

tures as material. After learning to read, a pupil studied 
arithmetic for four hours, and vocal music for two hours 
each week. Incidentally, the course was enriched with 
Realistic a knowledge of ' real ' or useful things, such as the simplest 
studies. ^^^^^ ^^ astronomy and physics, bits of geographical and 

historical information, and various household arts. 
inthe'Pada- In the Fadagogium, not only was religion the chief 
GredTand study, but Greek and Hebrew were taught largely for 
Hebrew for ^-^q gakc of cxcgcsis, compositious were written in Latin 
Latin and ^p^j^ Bible subjccts, and French was learned through a 

French ^ 

through the Ncw Testament in that language. The realistic turn 

Bible. , , , ° . . . . , 

to Francke s work also appeared m trammg m the ver- 
nacular, in such studies as mathematics, German oratory, 
history, and geography, and in the elements of natural 
science, arts, and crafts, and of astronomy, anatomy, 
Realistic and and materia medica. He also added the management 
studies. of estates, gardens, and vineyards, and such other knowl- 

edge as the upper classes of society would find useful. 
As the pupils in the Schola Latina were not of sufficient 
social standing to demand it, the French and some of 
the practical studies of the Pddagogium were omitted, 
Course of but the curriculum was otherwise the same. The Real- 
Ladna/the schuU wcut more fully into the mathematics, sciences, 
Indthf ''^^'' and useful subjects than did the Fadagogium. The 



FRANCKE AND HIS INSTITUTIONS 73 

work in the Tochterschule was not unlike that in the Latin *Tochter- 
school, but included the household arts and other occu- 
pational studies and 'accomplishments/ 

While the course in all of Francke's schools was dis- Theindi- 
tinctly disciplinary in theory, good pedagogy was not wasTtuS. 
altogether neglected. The teachers were directed by 
his treatise to study each individual pupil, and were ad- 
vised how to train children to concentrate, observe, and 
reason. Although much memorizing was practiced. Memorizing 
"children were not to be permitted to learn to prattle ^derstand- 
words without understanding them." This comprehen- aUowed^°^ 
sion of the work was, of course, increased by applying 
all studies to everyday life. The pupils wrote formal Application 
letters, receipts, and bonds, and their mathematical daiViife! ° 
problems were based upon practical transactions. The 
discipline in all the schools of Francke, in consequence, Miiddisd- 
though strict, was mild and humane. ^ ^^' 

The Influence of Francke 's Institutions 

From these schools, together with the orphanage, 'Francke's 
seminary, and 'free table' as a nucleus, have developed grew rapidly, 
the now celebrated organization known as Franckesche nu^mber^ami 
Stiftungen ('Francke's Institutions'). "It is difficult ^7^^^^^^^/ 
to decide," says Adamson, "whether the most surprising tivework. 
feature is their humble beginning, or their rapid growth 
and steady adaptation of means to ends." In spite of 
many controversies resulting from the Pietistic auspices 



74 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

of the institutions, at the death of Francke in 1727 there 
were already in the elementary schools some seventeen 
hundred and twenty-five pupils of both sexes, in the or- 
phanage were maintained one hundred boys and thirty- 
four girls, while the Pddagogium had eighty-two, and the 
Schola Latina four hundred boys, and two hundred 
and fifty students boarded at the ^free table/ 

These institutions have since been increased in num- 
ber, and there are now some twenty-five enterprises 
conducted in a large group of structures built about a 
double court. Among the additions are a printing 
plant and bindery, a bookstore, a Bible house, a drug 
store and dispensary, and a home for women, as well as 
a Realgymnasium ^ and a Vorschule} Through these 
institutions more than four thousand persons are being 
provided with the means of an education or Kvelihood, 
and many good causes are advanced. Over one million 
marks ($250,000), coming from the endowment, state 
appropriations, tuition fees, and profits upon the enter- 
prises, are expended each year in maintaining the in- 
stitutions. 
The 'mod- This work of Francke has had a great influence upon 

havehlflu-^ German education in several directions. The 'modern' 

* A compromise between the Gymnasium and the Realschule, which has 
been quite common in Germany, but is now disappearing. 

2 A preparatory school for the secondary schools, attended by children 
between six and nine. 



FRANCKE AND HIS INSTITUTIONS 75 

studies of the Padagogium and Schola Latina have been enced the 

a model for Prussia and all Protestant Germany, and sien';the 

have somewhat affected the curricula of the Gymnasien. ha^spTeaV 

The Realschule of Semler was brought in a slightly modi- p/^^^Jf^^f^^^ 

fied form to Berlin by Hecker, one of the teachers in the the'Semina- 

rium' has 

Padagogium. From the capital it spread gradually been adopted 
throughout Prussia, until it was taken into the public caiiyaiithe 
systemx, and is to-day one of the most important features, states!^ 
The seminary, or training school for teachers, has been 
adopted by practically every one of the German states. 
Further, since in the various schools of Francke were 
realized the chief ideals of most educational reformers 
up to that time, Germany was thereby given a concrete 
example of what it might best strive to imitate. Again, 
by means of teachers trained in his system at the semi- 
nary, all Germany has been leavened with the spirit of All Germany 
the great Pietist. f,- tS. 

As to Pietism itself, however, while originally a pro- But Pietism 
test against creed and ceremonial, in later years it lost ci^sJaUize?^ 
much of its living power and deteriorated into a formal- *^^ ^®^' 
ism in religious life and thought. It magnified even the 
smallest of daily doings into expressions of piety, and 
became, like Puritanism, pervaded with affectation and 
cant. To a great extent its schools, with their spiritual 
purpose and content, then lapsed into merely inefficient 
classes in formal catechism, and all hold upon real living 
was lost. The religious revival of Spener and the edu- 



76 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

cational impulse of Francke had become crystallized and 
fixed. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Sources 

Ejiamer, G. (Editor). A. H. Francke' s Pddagogische Sckriffen. 
RiCHTER, A. August Hermann Francke, Kurzer und Einfaltiger 
UnterricM (Pt. X of Neudrucke Pddagogischer Schriften). 

II. Authorities 

*Adamson, J. W. Pioneers of Modern Education. Chap. XIII. 

CoMPAYRE, G. History of Pedagogy. P. 414. 

Francke, K. German Literature as Determined by Social Forces. 

Pp. 175-176. 
Kramer, G. August Hermann Francke; einLehensbild and Francke 

und seine Stiftungen in Halle {A. H. Francke* s Pddagogische 

Schriften, Introduction). 
NoHLE, E. History of the German School System. {Report of the 

United States Commissioner of Education. 1897-1898, pp. 49- 

51). 
*QuiCK, R. H. Educational Reformers, Chap. XIII. 
Russell, J. E. German Higher Schools. Pp. 63-65. 
Williams, S. G. History of Modern Education. Pp. 259-272. 



CHAPTER VII 

ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 

The inconsistencies and contradictions of Rousseau 
are almost proverbial. But in his antecedents and ca- 
reer can be found a ready explanation for the positions 
of this most illogical writer. The theories of no man are 
more clearly a product of his heredity, experience, and 
times, and, thanks to his own mercilessly frank Con- 
fessions,^ there are few instances in history where the 
Kfe and environment of any other personage are known 
in so much detail. 

The Life, Training, and Times of Rousseau 

Jean Jacques Rousseau (17 12-17 78) was born of upper- The parent- 
class parentage in the simple Protestant city of Geneva. tSni^g of 
His father, a watchmaker, was descended from a Parisian ^o^^seau 

' _ tended to 

family, and inherited much of the romanticism, mercurial "^^ke Wm 

emotional, 

temperament, and love of pleasure of his forbears. The imaginative, 
mother of Rousseau, too, although the daughter of a dous. 
clergyman, was of a morbid and sentimental disposition. 

1 The Confessions carry his life from early childhood up to his expulsion 
from the He de Saint Pierre and his preparation to go to Hume. See p. 104. 
We are largely dependent upon the Reveries and Letters for the rest of his 
biography. 

77 



78 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

She died at the birth of Jean Jacques, and the child was 
brought iip by an indulgent aunt, who made little attempt 
to correct his pilfering and lying, and utterly failed to 
instil in him any real moral principles. This general 
tendency toward a want of self-control was further in- 
creased by the careless attitude of his father. While 
the boy was but six, the elder Rousseau sat up with him 
night after night until daylight reading the silliest and 
most sensational of romances from the extensive collec- 
tion left by his wife. Thus were nurtured within the 
child an extreme emotionality, imaginativeness, and pre- 
cocity. After a year or so the novels were exhausted, 
and Rousseau was forced to turn for material to the 
more sensible library of his grandfather, the preacher. 
The works the child found here, such as the Parallel 
Lives of Plutarch and the standard histories of the day, 
made quite as profound an impression upon his character. 
They contributed to his sense of heroism and what he 
afterward termed "that republican spirit and love of 
liberty, that haughty and invincible turn of mind, which 
rendered me impatient of restraint." His want of con- 
trol may in this way have first come to turn itself toward 
revolution and the destruction of existing society. 

The two years following this period Jean Jacques 
spent in the village of Bossey, just outside Geneva, where 
he had been sent with a cousin of about the same age to 
be educated. Here his love of nature, which had already 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 79 

been cultivated by the beauties of Genevan environment, departure 

from nature 

was greatly heightened. He found a wonderful enjoy- had corrupted 
ment in this rural life, until a severe punishment for a ^^^^^ ^' 
boyish offense turned all to dross. Thereupon, he de- 
clares, he began to evolve the theory that it is through 
restraint and discipline of the impulses and departure 
from nature that humanity has ever been corrupted and 
ruined, and it may well be that later on, from his adult 
standpoint, this experience seemed to have contributed to 
what then became the central feature of his philosophy. 

After this the boy returned to Geneva and spent a His want of 
couple of years in idleness and sentimentality. Then, loveTAia-' 
during trade apprenticeships lasting four years, he was ^y^pati^y 
further corrupted by low companions and gave free with the op- 

■^ -^ ^ ° pressed, were 

rein to his impulses to loaf, lie, and steal. Eventually, strengthened 

by his 

he ran away from the city, and spent several years in wanderings. 
vagrancy, dissoluteness, and menial service. During 
this time the beauties of nature were more than ever 
impressed upon the youth by the wonderful scenery of the 
Savoy country through which he passed, and his educa- 
tion was somewhat improved by incidental instruction 
from a relative of one of the families he served. Finally, 
at nineteen, Rousseau went to stay in Savoy with 
Madame de Warens, a person of shallow character and 
considerable beauty. In the decade he lived there, 
under most anomalous conditions, upon the meager 
pension of a woman, he obtained further sporadic train- 



8o GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



His attitude 
blended well 
with the 
vague senti- 
ments of the 
period. 



ing in Latin, music, philosophy, and some of the sciences. 
Through occasional wanderings he also strengthened 
his love of nature and learned to sympathize with the 
condition of the poor and oppressed. At length he and 
Madame de Warens grew tired of each other, and Rous- 
seau gravitated to Paris. In this city he was forced to 
earn a livelihood for himself and Therese Le Vasseur, a 
coarse and stupid servant girl, with whom he Hved for 
the rest of his life. He thus began to develop some sense 
of responsibiHty. 

While Rousseau's days of vagabondage were now over, 
they had left an ineffaceable stamp upon him. His 
sensitiveness, impulsiveness, love for nature, and sym- 
pathy for the poor, together with his inaccurate and un- 
systematic education, were ever afterward in evidence. 
And it can be seen that these characteristics of Rous- 
seau blended well with a body of inchoate sentiments 
and vague longings of this period that were striving for 
expression. These were the days of Louis XV and royal 
absolutism, when the administration of all affairs in the 
kingdom was controlled nominally by the monarch, but 
really by a small clique of idle and extravagant courtiers 
about him. It was necessary for those who had any 
desire for advancement to seek to attach themselves to 
the court and adopt its elaborate rules and customs. In 
consequence, a most artificial system of etiquette and 
conduct had grown up everywhere in the upper class of 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 8i 

society. Under this veneer and extreme conventionality 
were the degraded peasants, ground down by taxation, 
deprived of their rights, and obliged to minister to the 
pleasure of a vicious leisure class. But against this op- 
pression and decadence there had gradually arisen an un- 
defined spirit of protest and a tendency to hark back to 
simpler conditions. There had come into the air a feeling 
that the despotism and artificiality of the times were due 
to the departure of civilized man from an original benefi- 
cent state of nature, and that above all legislation and 
institutions was a natural law in complete harmony with 
the divine will. Hence it happened that Rousseau, emo- 
tional, ujicontroUed, and half-trained, was destined to 
bring to consciousness and give voice to the revolutionary 
and naturalistic ideas and tendencies of the century. 

His Discourses, and The New Heloise, Social 
Contract, and Emile 

For some time, among other methods of securing a Finally at 
living, he had been attempting Hterary production, when chaotic^^ 
by a curious accident in 1750 he leaped into fame as a ^yJ^dLir 
writer. The preceding year the Academy of Dijon ^ in his essay 
had proposed as a theme for a prize essay : Has the prog- Progress 

of the Sciences 

ress of the sciences and arts contributed to corrupt or to and Arts m 

1 A few of the larger cities of France had, in imitation of Paris, founded 
'academies ' for the discussion of scientific and philosophic questions. Of 
these institutions one of the earliest and most prominent was that of Dijon. 

G 



82 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

i7soandhis purify morals? '^ This inquiry seems to have suddenly 

essay on "^ 

Inequality brought to a focus all the chaotic thought that had been 

three years . . . i . i 

later. Surging withm Rousseau, and' with much fervor and con- 

viction, though most illogically, he declared that the 
existing oppression and corruption of society were due 
to the advancement of civiHzation. In the discourse 
written by him he contrasts the rugged conduct of men 
in the primitive ages with the artificial manners of his 
day, under which were cloaked impiety, deception, and 
arrogance. He undertakes to show from the history of 
the Oriental and classical nations that this degeneracy 
has ever been caused by the development of the arts and 
sciences and the attempt to pass from that happy state 
of ignorance in which men are placed by nature. Rous- 
seau's essay won the prize and created a tremendous 
stir. Three years later he competed for another prize 
offered by the same academy on the subject : The origin 
of inequality among men? In his discourse on this subject 
Rousseau holds that the physical and intellectual in- 
equalities of nature which existed in primitive society were 
scarcely noticeable, but that, with the growth of civiliza- 
tion, most oppressive distinctions arose, especially through 
the institution of private property. He declares : — 

"The first man who, having inclosed a piece of ground, could 
think of saying, 'This is mine,' and found people simple enough to 

* Si le progres des sciences et des arts a contribue d corrompre ou d epurer 
les mxurs. ^ Uorigine de Vinigalite parmi les homines. 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 83 

believe him, was the real founder of civil society. How many 
crimes, wars, murders, miseries, and horrors would not have been 
spared to the human race by any one who, pulling up the stakes 
or filling in the trench, could have called out to his fellows: 'Be- 
ware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you forget 
that the earth belongs to no one, and that its fruits are for all ! "* 

For, he claims, it is the institution of property that 
soon led to robbery and insecurity, and this brought about 
civiKzation and laws to protect the accumulations of the 
wealthy. Through a law-governed society the poor were 
thrown more deeply into bondage and a new power was 
added to the rich.^ 

As Rousseau's democratic and revolutionary spirit After with- 

. . . . drawing to 

developed, Paris, with its hypocritical and cold-blooded Montmo- 
atmosphere, became more and more stifling to him. produced by 
Finally, in 1756, he withdrew to the village of Mont- N^^2ioise, 
morency and the society of devoted friends. Here in 'S'^ao/ Cow- 

-^ -^ tract, and 

1 761, after a period of idleness and a most unfortunate -Ew^Ve, which 

1 The following ironical letter written by Voltaire to Rousseau concern- 
ing this work exposes the fundamental weakness of the author's philos- 
ophy : — 

"I have received your new book against the human race and thank you 
for it. Never was such cleverness used in the design of making us all 
stupid, pne longs on reading your book to walk on all fours. But as I 
have lost that habit for more than sixty years, I feel unhappily the im- 
possibility of renewing it. Nor can I embark in search of the savages of 
Canada, because the maladies to which I am condemned render a Euro- 
pean surgeon necessary to me ; because war is going on in those regions ; 
and because the example of our actions has made the savages nearly as 
bad as ourselves." 



84 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 
modify some- love affair, he produced his remarkable romance, The 

what his idea 

of a complete New Helotse,^ and in the following year his influential 
nature. essay on political ethics, known as the Social Contract,^ 

and that most revolutionary treatise on education, the 
Entile. The New Heloise departs somewhat from the 
complete return to nature sought in the two discourses. 
It commends a restoration of as much of the primitive 
simplicity of Hving as the crystallized traditions and 
institutions of society will permit. While the first part 
of the work is filled with passion and ilHcit love,^ the 
last is an exaltation of marriage and the family, and of 
the happiness and peace of rural Hfe. In the Social Con- 
tract, Rousseau also finds the ideal state, not in that of 
nature, but in a society managed by the people, where 
simpHcity and natural wants control, and aristocracy 
and artificiality do not exist. A state of nature, how- 
ever, is still the starting-point. CiviHzed society orig- 
inated when men in the primitive condition found the 
obstacles to self-preservation too strong, and sought by 
association to protect the person and property of all. 
The body thus constituted is sovereign, and every citizen 
is a member of it. The government which it sets up, 
whether a monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, may, 

therefore, be abolished at any time by the general will 

« 

1 The full title was Julie, ou la nouvelle Heloise. ^ Contrdt Social. 

3 The secorid part of the title grows out of this resemblance to the story 
of Abelard and Heloise. 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 85 

of the people. The furore that this doctrine created 
in church and monarch-ridden France can easily be 
imagined. 

The Purpose of the Emile 

But the work that has made the name of Rousseau 
famous and most concerns us here is his Emile. This 
treatise and the two discourses their author declared to 
be "three inseparable works, which together form a single 
whole." He might well have included also the New 
Heloise and the Social Contract, especially as the Emile 
assumes more nearly the modified position of the later 
works, and undertakes to show how education might 
minimize the drawbacks of civiHzation and bring man 
as near to nature as possible. As the Social Contract The Emile 

W3.S dircctcci 

and his discourses were written to counteract the op- against the 
pressive social and political conditions, the Emile aims education of 
to replace the conventional and formal education ot the the day, and 

^ apphes 

day with a training that should be natural and spontane- Rousseau's 

naturahsm 

ous. We learn that under this ancien regime little boys to education. 
had their hair powdered, wore a sword, ' the chapeau 
imder the arm, a frill, and a coat with gilded cuffs,' that 
a girl was dressed in equally ridiculous imitation of a 
fashionable wom^an, and that education was largely one 
of deportment and the dancing master, for "this is to 
|be the great thing for them when they become men and 
women, and for this reason it is the thing of chief impor- 



2,6 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



It is divided 
into five 
parts : 



tance for them as children." ^ On the intellectual side, 
education was largely traditional and consisted chiefly of 
a training in Latin grammar, words, and memoriter work. 
Rousseau scathingly criticized these practices and pleaded 
for reform. Hence in the Emile he applies his natur- 
alistic principles to the education of an imaginary pupil 
of that name ''from the moment of his birth up to the 
time when, having become a mature man, he will no 
longer need any other guide than himself." The work 
is divided into five parts, four of which deal with Emile's 
education in the stages of infancy, childhood, boyhood, 
and youth respectively, and the fifth with the training 
of the girl who is to become his wife. 



(i) 'infancy,' 
when the 
pupil is to 
be removed 
from society, 
and given a 
natural and 
physical 
training ; 



The Five Books of the Emile 

Rousseau starts the first book with a re-statement 
of his basal principle that "everything is good as it comes 
from the hands of the Author of Nature ; but everything 
degenerates in the hands of man." After elaborating 
this, he shows that we are educated by "three kinds of 
teachers, — nature, mgn, and things, and since the co- 
operation of the three educations is necessary for their 
perfection, it is to the one over which we have no con- 
trol {i.e. nature) that we must direct the other two." 

1 Taine, The Ancient Regime, p. 137. Read S. C. Parker's clear pres- 
entation of this 'dancing-master education' in The Elementary School 
Teacher, Vol. X, pp. 139-148. 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 87 

Education must, therefore, conform to nature, and must 
be a means not of preparing for citizenship in any par- 
ticular government, much less for an occupation, but 
of developing manhood and fitting for 'the duties of 
human Hfe.' ''To Kve," says Rousseau of his pupil, 
"is the trade I wish to teach him." For so delicate a 
task the training of the child must be undertaken by his 
parents, or if, as in the case of Emile, he is an orphan, by 
a trustworthy tutor, who can secure his full confidence.^ 
As an infant, Emile must be removed to the country, 
where he will be close to nature and farthest from the 
contaminating influences of civiKzation. His growth 
and training must be as spontaneous as possible. He 
must have nothing to do with either medicine or doctors, 
"unless his life is in evident danger; for then they can 
do nothing worse than kill him." His natural movements 
must not be restrained by caps, bands, or swaddling 
clothes, and he should be nursed by his own mother.^ 

^ It is clear from the mention of a tutor that Rousseau had in mind 
reforming only the imnatural education of the upper class. With all his 
sympathy for the downtrodden peasants, he did not feel the need of 
improving their training. He is rather impressed with their opportunity 
for free development, saying, "The poor man needs no education, for his 
condition forces one upon him." 

2 The effect of this teaching of Rousseau upon the fashionable French 
mothers was not altogether happy. When this 'return to nature' came 
to be a fad, these ladies did not abandon society, but had the infants 
brought in at dessert, when the mothers were filled with wine and food, 
or in the intervals of the dance, when they were overheated, and gave 



88 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

He should likewise be used to baths of all sorts of tem- 
perature. In fact, the child should not be forced into 
any fixed ways whatsoever, since, with Rousseau, habit 
is necessarily something contrary to impulse and so im- 
natural and a thing to be shunned. ''The only habit," 
says he, "which the child should be allowed to form is 
to contract no habit whatsoever." Since, however, ugly 
objects, alarming sounds, and the dark exist in nature, 
he should be gradually accustomed to them. When he 
cries for a reason, he should be cared for, but when from 
caprice or obstinacy, he should not be heeded, or, if it 
is necessary to divert his attention, it should be without 
his suspecting it. His playthings should not be "gold 
or silver bells, coral, elaborate crystals, toys of all kinds 
and prices," but such simple products of nature as 
"branches with their fruits and flowers, or a poppy-head 
in which the seeds are heard to rattle." Language that 
is simple, plain, and hence natural, should be used with 
him, and he should not be hurried beyond nature in 
learning to talk. He should be restricted to a few words 
that express real thoughts for him. 

The education of Emile during infancy is thus to be 
purely physical. The aim is simply to keep his ^instincts 

them their natural sustenance at that time. Nevertheless, Rousseau did 
permanently modify the attitude toward children and the treatment of 
them. Parents entered into more intimate relations with their children 
and found time to look after their education. 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION^ 89 

and impulses, which, Rousseau holds, are good by nature, 
free from vice, and his intelligence free from error. This (2) 'child- 
natural and negative education is continued in the second tweei five 
book, which deals with the child between the years of whenTels'to 
five and twelve. No moral training is to be given as ^^ofartra^n- 
such, for ''until he reaches the asre of reason, he can form j"^' ^^^^° , 

learn through 

no idea of moral beings or social relations." Rousseau 'conse- 

quences,'and 

m^am tarns that the terms obey and command are pro- to develop 
scribed from his vocabulary, and still more the terms duty rather than 
and obHgation.'' Certain lessons are, however, to be ^ ^ ^^^ ' 
taught him indirectly by a control of his environment, 
for ''the terms force, necessity, impotency, and constraint 
should have a large place" with him, and "he is to be 
taught by experience." He is to learn through 'natural 
consequences ' until he arrives at the age for understand- 
ing moral precepts. If he breaks the furniture or the 
windows, let him suffer the inconveniences that arise 
from his act. Do not preach to him or punish him for 
lying, but afterward affect not to believe him even when 
he has spoken the truth. If he carelessly digs up the 
sprouting melons of the gardener, in order to plant beans 
for himself, let ,the gardener in turn uproot the beans, 
and thus cause him to learn the sacredness of property. 
In intellectual matters, too, Rousseau condemns the 
usual unnatural practice of requiring pupils to learn so 
much before they have reached the proper years. He 
rhetorically asks : "Shall I venture to state at this point 



90 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

the most important, the most useful, rule of all education ? 
It is not to gain time, but to lose it." Hence during this 
period Emile is not to study geography, history, or lan- 
guages, upon which pedagogues ordinarily depend to 
exhibit the attainments of their pupils, although these 
understand nothing of what they h^,ve memorized. He 
is not to commit fables to memory, for he will be very 
likely to misapply the moral. Rousseau even goes so far 
as to declare : — 

"In thus relieving children of all their school tasks, I take away 
the instrument of their greatest misery, namely, books. Reading 
is the scourge of childhood, and almost the sole occupation that we 
know how to give them. At the age of twelve, Emile wiU hardly 
know what a book is. But I shall be told that it is very necessary 
that he know how to read. This I grant. It is necessary that he 
know how to read when reading is useful to him. Until then, it 
serves only to annoy him." 

The chief function of education at this period is to 
develop the body and ''keep the soul fallow," for, ''in 
order to think, we must exercise our limbs, our senses, and 
our organs, which are the instruments of our intelli- 
gence." To obtain this training, Emile is to wear short, 
loose, and scanty clothing, go bareheaded, and have the 
body inured to cold and heat, and be generally subjected 
to a 'hardening process' similar to that recommended 
by Locke.^ He should have plenty of time for sleep, 
although he should learn to have it interrupted and to 
1 See p. 62. 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 



91 



endure a hard bed. He must learn to swim, to protect 
himself from drowning, and must prepare for emergencies, 
by practicing long and high jumps, leaping walls, and 
scaKng rocks. His senses are to be exercised on natural 
problems in weighing and measuring masses and dis- 
tances ; his hand and eye are to be trained by drawing 
from nature about him, and his ear is to be rendered 
sensitive to harmony by learning to sing. 

There comes, however, between twelve and fifteen, (sV boy- 
after the boy's body and senses have been trained, ''^n tweeA twelve 
interval when the power of the individual is greater whenhels'to 
than his desires, which is the period of his greatest useM^stlfdies 
relative strength." This period, which is dealt with in without 

books of any 

his third book, Rousseau declares, is intended by nature sort, save 

Robinson 

itself as "the time of labor, instruction, and study." Crusoe, and 
But it is obvious even to our unpractical author that the trade of 
not much can be learned within three years, and he maHng" 
accordingly decides to limit instruction to " merely that 
which is useful." And even of useful studies the boy 
should not be expected to learn those "truths which 
require, for being comprehended, an understanding 
already formed, or which dispose an inexperienced mind 
to think falsely on other subjects." After eliminating 
all useless, incomprehensible, and misleading studies, 
Rousseau finds that natural sciences alone remain as 
mental pabulum for the boy. The natural method for 
acquiring these subjects, he beHeves, is through an 



92 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

appeal to the curiosity and instinct for investigation. 
''Ask questions that are within his comprehension, and 
leave him to resolve them. Let him know nothing 
because you have told it to him, but because he has 
comprehended it himself; he is not to learn science, 
but to discover it. If you ever substitute in his mind 
authority for reason, he will no longer reason." So 
Rousseau contrasts the current methods of teaching 
astronomy and geography by means of globes, maps, 
and other misleading representations, with the more 
natural plan of stimulating inquiry by observing the 
sun when rising and setting during the different seasons, 
and by studying the topography of the neighborhood 
and drawing maps of it. Emile is taught to appreciate 
the value of these subjects by being lost in the forest, 
and, in his efforts to find a way out, discovering a use 
for them. He learns the elements of electricity by 
meeting with a juggler, who attracts an artificial duck 
by means of a concealed magnet. He similarly dis- 
covers through experience the effect of cold and heat 
upon solids and liquids, and so comes to understand the 
thermometer and other instruments. Hence Rousseau 
feels that all knowledge of real value may be acquired 
clearly and naturally without the use of rivalry or text- 
books. "I hate books," he says; ''they merely teach 
us to talk of what we do not know." But he finds one 
book, "where all the natural needs of man are exhibited 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 93 

in a manner obvious to the mind of a child, and where 
the means of providing for these needs are successively 
developed with the same facility." This book, Robin- 
son Crusoe,^ should be carefully studied by Emile. In 
order to learn the interdependence of men from the 
industrial rather than the moral side, Emile and his 
tutor now also labor in the various arts, and that he 
may be independent of changes in fortune and revolutions 
in government, the boy is to learn a trade. Cabinet- 
making, as being 'nearest to the state of nature' and most 
capable of exercising both mind and body, is chosen. 

Emile is now fifteen, and his mind is prepared to (4) 'youth,' 
receive an ethical training. This is treated in the fourth o^n,"^hen he 
book, which is the most brilliant and chimerical of all. '^^^^^^^^^^ 
The motive of education has hitherto been self-interest, religious, by 

visits to 

and the object self-development. Emile must now unfortunates, 

exposure to 

learn to live with others and be trained in social rela- knaves, the 
tionships. He is to be made affectionate, moral, and andtheadop- 
religious. ''We have formed his body, his senses, and ^dsm; ' 
his intelligence ; it remains to give him a heart." The su- 
preme importance of the adolescent period for this moral 
training is recognized by Rousseau in the declaration : — 

"This critical time, though very short, has lasting influences. 
Here is the second birth of which I have spoken ; it is here that 

^Thus Campe of the 'Philanthropinum,' which attempted to put 
Rousseau's doctrines into practice, wrote on the model of Robinson Crusoe 
the work now known as Swiss Fafnily Robinson. See p. 115. 



94 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

man really begins to live, and nothing human is foreign to him. 
So far our cares have been but child's play ; it is only now that 
they assume a real importance. This epoch, where ordinary 
education ends, is properly one where ours ought to begin." 

"To turn his character toward benevolence and 
goodness" during this impressionable age, Rousseau 
declares, is to be accomplished not through precepts, 
but in a natural way by bringing the youth into contact 
with his fellow men and appealing to his emotions. 
Emile is to visit infirmaries, hospitals, and prisons, and 
witness concrete examples of wretchedness in all stages, 
although not so frequently as to become hardened. 
That this training may not render him cynical or hyper- 
critical, it should be corrected by the study of history, 
where one sees men simply as a spectator without feel- 
ing or passion. Further, in order to deliver Emile from 
vanity, so common during adolescence, he is to be 
exposed to flatterers, spendthrifts, and sharpers, and 
allowed to suffer the consequences. He may at this 
time also be guided in his conduct by the use of fables, 
for "by censuring the wrongdoer under an unknown 
mask, we instruct without offending him." In a simi- 
larly indirect and informal fashion Emile is to be given 
his religious education. Until now he has been taught 
nothing about God or the human soul, as Rousseau 
holds that "it would be much better to have no idea of 
the Divinity than to have ideas which are low, fanciful, 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 95 

wrongful, or unworthy of him." But now " the natural 
progress of his intelligence carries his researches in that 
direction" and "from the study of nature he comes 
without difficulty to a search for its Author." Under 
the guise of the Savoyard Vicar's ^ Profession of Faith 
Rousseau describes the deism, or naturalistic views, 
which his pupil is to adopt. This formulation, which is 
written in stately but impassioned language, while de- 
parting from the position of the traditionaHzed Church 
of the day, is not, like the attacks of the rationalists, 
merely destructive. It seeks to replace organized Chris- 
tianity with a natural and undogmatic religion. The 
vicar declares : — 

"I perceive God everywhere in his works ; I feel him in myself ; 
I see him universally around me. But when I fain would seek 
where he is, what he is, of what substance, he glides away from me, 
and my troubled soul discerns nothing. The less I can conceive 
him, the more I adore. I bow myself down, and say to him, O 
being of beings, I am because thou art ; to meditate ceaselessly on 
thee by day and by night is to raise myself to my veritable source 
and fount." 

Emile at length becomes a man, and a life companion and (5), the 
must be found for him. A search should be made for a womfn^since 

1 This vicar of Savoy was a kindly old priest, who undertook to counsel 
Rousseau when at the height of his reckless career in Turin. Rousseau 
was much impressed, and afterward put his highest conception of religion 
into the mouth of this spiritual adviser. It fills a large portion of the 
fourth book. 



96 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

now that suitable lady, but "in order to find her, we must know 

be'^imea' her." Accordingly, the last book of the Emile deals 

Tompan^on with the Hiodel Sophie and the education of woman. 

has\een ^^ is the weakcst part of his work, for here Rousseau 

suitably completely abandons the individualistic training to be 

trained must ^ -' 

be found for myen the man. He insists: — 

him. 

"The whole education of women ought to be relative to men. 
To please them, to be useful to them, to make themselves loved 
and honored by them, to educate them when young, to care for 
them when grown, to counsel them, to console them, to make life 
agreeable and sweet to them — these are the duties of women at 
all times, and what should be taught them from infancy." 

Like men, women should be given adequate bodily 
training, but rather for the sake of physical charms and 
of producing vigorous offspring than for their own 
development. Their instinctive love of pleasing through 
dress should be made of service by teaching them sew- 
ing, embroidery, lace-work, and designing. Further, 
"girls ought to be obedient and industrious, and they 
ought early to be brought under restraint. Made to 
obey a being so imperfect as man, often so full of vices, 
and always so full of faults, they ought early to learn 
to suffer even injustice, and endure the wrongs of a 
husband without complaint." Girls should be taught 
singing, dancing, and other accomplishments that will 
make them attractive without interfering with their 
submissiveness. They should be instructed dogma ti- 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 97 

cally in religion at an early age. ''Every daughter 
should have the religion of her mother, and every wife 
that of her husband." In ethical matters they should 
be largely guided by public opinion. A woman may 
not learn philosophy, art, or science, but she should 
study men. ''She must learn to penetrate their feelings 
through their conversation, their actions, their looks, 
and their gestures, and know how to give them the 
feelings which are pleasing to her, without even seeming 
to think of them." 

Such was Rousseau's notion of a natural and indi- 
vidualistic education for a man and the passive and 
repressive training suitable for a woman, and of the 
happiness and prosperity that were bound to ensue.^ 
To make a fair estimate of the Emile is not easy. It is The defects 
necessary to put aside all of one's prejudices against the l^eout-^*^ 
weak and offensive personality of the author and to weighed by 
view the contradictions of his life and writings in their 
true perspective. His work on education is probably 
the most extraordinary union of strength and weakness, 
fascination and repulsion, high ideals and unpracticality, 

1 Later on, Rousseau seems to have had misgivings as to the effect of 
this training, and started a work called Emile and Sophie, or the Solitaries. 
This consists of a series of letters from Emile to his tutor, in which Rous- 
seau endeavors to show how, even if adversity should overtake his pupil, 
the natural education would still be the best. At every turn Emile rises 
superior to his misfortunes, exhibits the most valuable knowledge and 
resources, and comes rapidly into places of honor and emolument. 

H 



98 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

that was ever produced. But its errors and illusions are 
fully outweighed by great truths and lofty sentiments, 
and, in making an appraisal, one should offset the grave 
defects of the book by its still larger merits. 

The Merits and Defects of the Emile 

It is most The Emile, it must be admitted at the start, is often 

brilliant and illogical, erratic, and inconsistent. Rousseau constantly 
convincing, g^^^yg from Optimism to pessimism, from spontaneity 
to authority, from liberaHsm to intolerance. While he 
holds that society is thoroughly corrupt, he has great 
confidence in the goodness of all individuals of which it 
is composed. In the face of history and psychology, he 
opposes nature to culture, and creates a dualism between 
emotion and reason. Although the instincts and re- 
actions of Emile are apparently given free play, they 
are really under the constant guidance of his tutor. 
The supposed isolation of the pupil is conveniently for- 
gotten on occasion by attendance at fairs, parties, and 
competitions with his fellows. Emile is to have his 
individuality developed to its utmost, but Sophie's is to 
be trained out of her. However, in spite of such glaring 
inconsistencies, the Emile has at all times been ac- 
counted a work of great richness and power. The 
brilliant thought, the underlying wisdom of many of 
his suggestions, the sentimental appeal, and the clear, 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 99 

enthusiastic, and ardent presentation have completely 
overbalanced its contradictions and logical deficien- 
cies. 

The most marked feature of the Rousselian education it is anti- 

... . social, but 

and the one most subject to criticism has been its ex- tradition had 
treme revolt against civilization and all social control, and an ex- ' 
A state of nature is held to be the ideal condition, and tri^^wlT" 
all social relations are regarded as degenerate. The necessary. 
child is to be brought up in isolation by the laws of 
brute necessity and to have no social or political educa- 
tion imtil he is fifteen, when an impossible set of expe- 
dients for bringing him into touch with his fellows is 
devised. The absurdity of this anti-social education 
has always been keenly felt. Children cannot be 
reared in a social vacuum, nor can they be trained 
merely as world citizens to the complete exclusion of 
specific governmental authority. And although society 
may become stereotyped and corrupt, it yet furnishes 
the means of carrying the accumulated race experience 
and attainments. One should remember, however, that 
the times and the cause had need of just so extreme a 
doctrine. The reformer is often forced to assume the 
position of a fanatic, in order to secure attention for his 
propaganda. Had Rousseau's cry been uttered a gen- 
eration later, when society had become less artificial 
and more responsive to popular rights, it might have 
contained less exaggeration. But at the time such 



lOO GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



It rejects 
books and 
the experi- 
ence of the 
past, but it 
develops 
observation 
and inference 
and physical 
activity. 



It fails to 
understand 
children, but 



individualism alone could enable him to break the 
bondage to the past. By means of paradoxes and 
exaggerations he was able to emphasize the cr3dng 
need of a natural development of man, and to tear 
down the effete traditions in educational organiza- 
tion, content, and methods. Moreover, the fallacy 
involved in such an isolated education is too pal- 
pable to deceive any one, and is scarcely sufficient 
for condemning Rousseau. On the contrary, those 
who have most admired him and endeavored to de- 
velop his theories — Basedow, Pestalozzi, Herbart, and 
Froebel — have all most insistently stressed social activ- 
ities in the training of children. 

About this position of natural and unsocial education 
described in the Emile cluster several elements of weak- 
ness and strength. In the first place, Rousseau is abso- 
lutely opposed to all book learning and exaggerates the 
value of personal observation and inference. He con- 
sequently neglects the past, and robs the pupil of all 
the experience of his fellows and of those who have 
gone before. But he develops the details of obser- 
vational and experimental work in elementary training 
to an extent never previously undertaken, and em- 
phasizes physical activity as a means to the growth and 
intellectual development of children. 

Again, a fact of far greater importance is that, although 
Rousseau's knowledge of children was exceedingly defec- 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION loi 

live/ and his recommendations were marred by unnat- starts the 

ural breaks and filled with sentimentality, he saw the devdop- 

need of studying the child as the only basis for edu- °^^^^'~ 
cation. In the Preface to the Emile he declares : — 

"We do not know childhood. Acting on the false ideas we 
have of it, the farther we go the farther we wander from the right 
path. The wisest among us are engrossed in what the adult needs 
to know and fail to consider what children are able to apprehend. 
We are always looking for the man in the child, without thinking 
of what he is before he becomes a man. This is the study to which 
I have devoted myself, to the end that, even though my whole 
method may be chimerical and false, the reader may still profit 
by my observations. I may have a very poor conception of what 
ought to be done, but I think I have the correct view of the subject 
on which we are to work. Begin, then, by studying your pupils 
more thoroughly, for assuredly you know nothing about them. 
Now if you read this book of mine with this purpose in view, I do 
not believe it will be without profit to you." 

As a result of such appeals the child has become the anewprin- 

- ,. . . , . ' ' 1 ciple in edu- 

center of discussion m modern training, and we may cation; 
thank Rousseau for introducing a new principle into 
education. And, despite his limitations and prejudices, 
this unnatural and neglectful parent stated many details 
of child development with much force and clearness 
and gave an impetus to later reformers, who were able 
to correct his observations and make them more prac- 
ticable in education. 

1 His Confessions tell us how he decHned to rear his own children, but 
consigned all five to the public foundling asylum. "" .,. 



I02 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



and, while 
dividing the 
pupil's devel- 
opment into 
too definite 
stages, it 
shows 
that there 
are charac- 
teristic differ- 
ences at 
different 
stages. 



Its religion is 
cold, but 
lofty; and 
replaced the 
traditional- 
ized Chris- 
tianity and 
rationalism 
of the times. 



In this connection may be mentioned the sharp divi- 
sion that Rousseau makes of the pupil's development 
into definite stages that seem but little connected with 
one another and his prescription of a distinct education 
for each period. This is often cited as a ruinous breach 
in the evolution of the individual, and the reducHo ad 
absurdum of such an atomic training would seem. to be 
reached in his hope of rendering Emile warm-hearted 
and pious after keeping him in the meshes of self-interest 
and doubt until he is fifteen. But such a criticism loses 
*sight of the remarkable contribution to educational 
theory and practice made thereby. Rousseau has shown 
that there are characteristic differences at different 
stages in the child's life, but each 'has a perfection or 
maturity of its own,' and that only as the proper activi- 
ties are provided for each stage will it reach that ma- 
turity or perfection. It can be seen how these prin- 
ciples fulfill his contention that the child must be studied, 
and, if put into effect, they would demolish the type of 
education which then was struggling to introduce the 
pupil into studies and activities far in advance of his 
interests and capacities. 

Finally, we should, on the whole, commend Rous 
seau's religion of nature and deism. While it is lacki] 
in warmth, reality, and power, it did much to replac 
the institutionalized and dogmatic Christianity, whicl 
had been overwhelmed by the attacks of rationalism* 



ROUSSEAU ANP NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 103 

with a pure, bfty, and tolerant faith. His mysterious 
Being penetrating all nature would seem a deity too 
vague and too removed to be of comfort and refresh- 
ment to human souls, but it was sufficient to purify the 
dying hierarchical system and duly stress the common 
interests of humanity. 

The Influence of Rousseau upon Society and Literature 

So revolutionary a work as the Emile could hardly The Emiie 
escape the wrath of the despotic government and hier- demned'by 
archy. The month following its pubHcation, the Par- ^^^^j^afand 

Hament ^ of Paris ordered the book to be burnt and its ^^f theologi- 
cal autnon- 
writer arrested on the charge of irrehgion, and shortly ties, and 

Rousseau 

afterward the theological doctors of the Sorbonne and was driven 
the Archbishop of Paris likewise condemned it. Rous- til his death." 
seau avoided arrest by fleeing from Montmorency, and 
from that time imtil his death was driven from pillar 
to post, at first by the tyranny of the rulers in Church 
and State, and later by his own morbid imagination. 
He would have taken asylum in Geneva, but he found, 
upon reaching Yverdun, that the Council had closed 
the gates of his native city to him, and decreed the burn- 
ing of both the Emile and the Social Contract. A similar 

1 These local parlements, of which that of Paris was the most important, 
were primarily higher law courts, but, in addition to trying cases, they 
claimed the right to register or disapprove the decrees of the king, and 
maintained certain other legislative powers. 



I04 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Yet no works 
have had a 
wider influ- 
ence upon 
society than 
those of 
Rousseau. 



persecution met him wherever he went ir. Switzerland, 
and in 1766 he fled to England at the invitation of the 
philosopher Hume. Here he soon imagined himself the 
victim of a plot, and returned to France, where for more 
than a decade he wandered about in the vicinity of Paris. 
In 1778 he died and was buried at Ermenonville. Fif- 
teen years later, during the Reign of Terror, he was 
hailed as a liberator, and his mortal remains were borne 
in triumph back to Paris by the revolutionists. There 
they were laid to rest in the Pantheon, the temple 
dedicated by France to her greatest sons. 

This recognition was late, but deserved. No other 
person, indeed, has ever approached Rousseau in point- 
ing out the cares and distresses of the poor and op- 
pressed, as they drag along their existence and produce 
the prosperity which is concentrated in the hands of a 
small but privileged group. No works besides his 
treatises have so graphically depicted the need for a 
change of front in society, or sounded such a clarion 
call to the downtrodden to arise in battle. His anarchic 
and unsocial individualism complemented the rational- 
ism and intellectual skepticism of Voltaire, and there 
resulted a furious revolution and a blind reaction to the 
decadent order of society. Rousseau may not have 
caused the French Revolution, but, as Napoleon de- 
clared, it would have been impossible without him. 
His brilliant and emotional naturalism crystallized the 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 105 

spirit of the times. It furnished the watchwords of 
the Jacobins and later of the Committee of PubHc 
Safety, and shook France from center to circumference. 
Similarly, America, although inheriting her love of 
Hberty from Anglo-Saxon ancestry, expressed her con- 
victions in formulas taken from the works of Rousseau. 
The American colonies seem to have assimilated the 
ideas, phrases, and even words ^ of the Gallic revolu- 
tionists and echoed them in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the Articles of Confederation, and in various 
documents and debates. 

In many other ways the influence of Rousseau has Rousseau has 
been felt. While he has left no direct impress upon the reSiy^ ^" 
tenets of political science, he has raised many inquiries ^^cai^sdence 
in that subject that have since had to be answered, ti^eojogy' 

and litera- 

He is largely responsible for the conception of socialism ture. 
and of philosophic anarchy, although his economic 
writings do not advocate either in specific terms. In 
religion, the modern tendency to emphasize the emo- 
tional element, and at the same time to reject doctrines, 
ritualism, and extreme organization received an impetus 
from Rousseau. To him is largely due the development 
of romanticism in the literature of the late eighteenth 
and early nineteenth centuries. During that period 
sentimentality, heroicism, personal adventures, domi- 
nance of the emotions, analysis of the passions, and 
1 For example, * life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' 



io6 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

inner conflicts pervade the writings of France, Germany, 
England, and America. Likewise, the descriptions of 
scenery and natural environment, and of the charm of 
the country, mountains, and lakes in literature, and the 
love for the natural, picturesque, and rural in art and 
architecture, largely find their beginnings in Rousseau's 
naturalism. 

His Influence upon Educational Theory and Practice 

But he has But the most Complete revolution and the most 
flifen^ed^echi- potcut effccts of Rousseliauism appear in educational 
orga^zTtion, thcory and practice. Few men have had as great an 
aiS' content^ influence upon the organization, method, and content of 
education. Although his mission was largely to destroy 
traditionalism, and most of the specific features of his 
naturalism have in time been modified or rejected, 
many of the important principles in modern pedagogy 
go back to him. His criticism caused men to rush to 
the defense of existing systems, and when they failed 
in their attempts to reinstate them, they undertook the 
construction of something better. In the first place, 
his attitude toward the artificial, superficial, and in- 
human society of the times led him to oppose its arbi- 
trary authority and guidance of education according to 
an unnatural and traditional organization. He advo- 
cated the virtues of the primitive man and a simpler 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 107 

basis of social organization, and held that all members 
of society should be trained so as to contribute to their 
own support and to be sympathetic and benevolent 
toward their fellows. Through him education has thus 
been more closely related to human welfare. The 
present-day emphasis upon the moral aim of education, 
the cultivation of social virtues, and the development of 
industrial education alike find some of their roots in 
the Emile. On the side of method and content also, 
education is indebted to the naturahsm of Rousseau. 
He first insisted upon the study of children as funda- 
mental in education, and showed that the material or 
activities provided must be in keeping with the dif- 
ferent stages of development. Rousseau may, there- 
fore, be credited in part with the modern regard for the 
freedom of the child and the study of his psychological 
development. Through him we have come to abandon 
the conception of the child as only an adult on a small 
scale. We may thank the Emile to some extent, too, 
for the increasing tendency to cease from forcing upon 
children a fixed method of thinking, feeHng, and acting, 
and for the gradual disappearance of the old ideas that 
a task is of educational value according as it is dis- 
tasteful, and that real education consists in straining to 
overcome meaningless difficulties.^ It is likewise due to 
him primarily that we have recognized the need of physi- 
1 See pp. 63 ff. 



io8 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

cal activities, especially in the earlier development of 

the child, as a foundation for its growth and learning. 

Further, it is the education of Emile that suggested 

familiarity with nature and natural phenomena as a 

means of coimterbalancing the corrupt action of man, 

and, partly as a result of this, schools and colleges have 

come to include the study of physical forces, natural 

environment, plants, and animals. 

This is shown The great influence of Rousseau upon education in all 

crease^ in'the its aspects is shown by the Hbrary of books since writ- 

TduStio'L t^^ ^^ contradict, correct, or disseminate his doctrines. 

ance the During the quarter of a century following the publica- 

pubUshed; tion of the Emile, probably more than twice as many 

books upon education were published as in the preceding 

three-quarters of a century. This epoch-making work 

created and forced a rich harvest of educational thinking 

for a century after its appearance, and it has affected 

our ideas upon pedagogical subjects from that day to 

this. But Rousseau's principles did not take immediate 

root in the schools themselves, although their influence 

and by the is manifest there as the nineteenth century advanced. 

plaints' and" In France they were apparent in the complaints and 

legislation, recommendations concerning schools in many of the 

cahiers ^ that were issued just prior to the Revolution, 

1 These were lists of grievances and desired reforms prepared by the 
various towns and villages throughout France at the request of the king 
(Louis XVI), in accordance with an old custom. 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION 109 

and afterward clearly formed a basis for much of the 
legislation concerning the universal, free, and secular or- 
ganization of educational institutions. In England, since 
there was no national system of schools, Httle direct 
impression was made upon educational practice, but in 
America this revolutionary thought would seem to have and the 
had much to do with causing the unrest that resulted secdariza- 
in secularizing and universalizing the pubHc system and ^^^^^ 
in producing the foundation for the first pubHc 'high' saiizingof 
schools.^ The first definite attempt, however, to put 
into actual practice the naturahstic education of Rous- 
seau occurred in Germany through the writings of Base- 
dow and the foundation of the 'Philanthropinum,' and 
is of suf&cient importance to demand separate discus- 
sion in another chapter. 

The Revolutionary Nature of Rousseau's Doctrines 

It should, however, be noted here that the work of Rousseau's 

Rousseau was bound up in a revolution from the society, made the 

traditions, and education of the past. His theories Jhe^J^ddie 

involved a destruction of the old social and moral Ages logi- 
cally corn- 
sanctions, but did not directly supply much to take their p^ete. 

place. A new social order, philosophy, and education 

were needed to bring about truth and freedom and a 

reconstructed view of the world. The individual had 

demanded free sway, and it was now necessary to adjust 

1 See Brown, Making of Our Middle Schools^ Chaps. X and XIII-XIV. 



no GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

him to his environment without repressing his develop- 
ment. The transition from mediaevalism thus became 
logically complete. It appeared about the middle of the 
fourteenth century, and, proceeding through a series of 
interconnected and overlapping advances followed by 
retrogressions — Renaissance, Reformation, Realism, 
Puritanism, Pietism, and Rationalism, — reached a gen- 
uinely destructive stage in RousseKanism toward the 
end of the eighteenth century. Evolution had failed, 
and revolution resulted, but through this was opened 
the vista of reconstruction on the modern basis. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Sources 

*RoussEAU, J. J. Confessions, Letters , and Reveries; Discourse 
on the Sciences and Arts, and Discourse on Inequality ; The 
New Heloise, Social Contract, and Emile. 

II. Authorities 

Barnard, H. American Journal of Education. Vol. V, pp. 459- 

486. Or German Teachers and Educators. Pp. 459-486. 
Brougham, H. Rousseau {Lives of Men of Letters). 
Browning, O. An Introduction to the History of Educational 

Theories. Chap. IX. 
Brunetiere, F. Manual of the History of French Literature, 

(Translated by Derechif.) Pp. 333-414. 
Cairo, C. Literature and Philosophy. Vol. I, pp. 105-146. 
CoMPAYRE, G. History of Pedagogy. (Translated by Payne.) 

Chap. XIII. 



ROUSSEAU AND NATURALISM IN EDUCATION iii 

CoMPAYRE, G. Jean Jacques Rousseau and Education from 

Nature. (Translated by Jago.) 
*Davidson, T. Rousseau and Education according to Nature. 
Francke, K. Social Forces in German Literature. Chaps. VII- 

VIII. 
GiRALDiN, St. M. /. /. Rousseau, sa vie et ses ouvrages. 
*HuDSON, W. H. Rousseau and Naturalism in Life and Thought. 
Lang, O. H. Rousseau and his Emile. 
Lincoln, C. H. Rousseau and the French Revolution (Annals of 

the American Academy of Political and Social Science, X, pp. 

54-72). 
*Macdonald, F. Studies in the France of Voltaire and Rousseau. 

Chaps. II and VII. 
Monroe, P. Textbook in the History of Education. Chap. X. 
MoRiN, S. H. Life and Character of Rousseau {LittelVs Living 

Age, XXXVIII, pp. 259-264). 
*MoRLEY, J. Rousseau. 

*MuNROE, J. p. The Educational Ideal. Chap. VII. 
Parker, S. C. Our Inherited Practice in Elementary Schools. II 

and III {Elementary School Teacher, November, 1909, and 

January, 19 10). 
Quick, R. H. Educational Reformers. Chap. XIV. 
ScHLOSSER, F. C. History of the Eighteenth Century. Vols. I 

and II. 
Texte, J. Rousseau and the Cosmopolitan Spirit. (Translated 

by Matthews.) Bk. I. 
Weir, S. The Key to Rousseau^s Emile {Educational Review, 

V, pp. 278-290).^ 



CHAPTER VIII 
BASEDOW AND THE PHILANTHROPINUM 

Basedow Johaufi Bemkard Basedow (i 723-1 790) was by nature 

thodox iiT^'^' the very sort of person to be captivated by Rousseau^s 

tuml'dto^the doctrines. He was talented but erratic, unorthodox, 

profession of tactless, and irregular in life. He was the son of a 

teaching. ' ° 

Hamburg wigmaker, but refused to follow his father's 
business and ran away. A gentleman with Whom he 
took service discovered his remarkable ability and per- 
suaded the lad's father to educate him. After due prep- 
aration at home, Basedow was sent to the University of 
Leipzig for a theological training, but soon proved heret- 
ical and again rejected the vocation chosen for him. 
He then (1749) became a tutor in Holstein to a Herr 
von Quaalen's children, and with these aristocratic 
pupils first developed his famous methods of teaching 
through conversation and play connected with sur- 
rounding objects. Within four years his patron secured 
for him a professorship at the Ritterakademie ^ of Soroe, 
Denmark, but by 1761 he had given such serious offense 
by his unorthodox utterances that the government felt 
obliged to transfer him to the Gymnasium at Altona. 

^For the nature and development of Ritterakademien, see Graves, 
History of Education during the Transition, pp. 290 f . 



BASEDOW AND THE PHILANTHROPINUM 113 

From his position here he flooded Germany with a 
variety of heretical essays, and was eventually refused 
the sacrament by the Church. 

Basedow's Educational Reforms and Writings 

About this time, however, Basedow fell imder the At the Gym- 
spell of Rousseau's Entile, which was most congenial to Aitonahe 
his methods of thinking and teaching, and turned to thcEmUe^^- 
educational reform. The schools of the day were sadly spjredto 

■^ •' reform the 

in need of just such an antidote as naturalism was cal- unnatural 

education of 

culated to furnish. The rooms were dismal and the the day. 
work unpleasant, physical training was neglected, and 
the discipline was severe. Children were regarded as 
adults in miniature, and were so treated both in their 
dress and their education. The boys had their hair 
curled, powdered, and smeared with pomade, and wore 
embroidered coats, dainty knee breeches, silk stockings, 
and swords. A boy standing by his father would have 
seemed to differ only in size. Little girls were bound 
up in whalebone waists, donned enormous hoop skirts, 
and wore upon their heads "a combination of false curls, 
puffs, and knots fastened with pins and crowned with 
plumes.'^ Education was largely a matter of instruction 
in artificial deportment.^ The study of classics com- 

* For a more complete description of the children's dress of these times 
and of this 'dancing-master' education, see Parker, Our Inherited Practice 
in Elementary Schools {Elementary School Teacher, November, 1909). 



114 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Through his 
Address on 
Schools he 
raised a 
sufficient 
subsidy to 
publish his 
Elementar- 
werk and 
Methoden- 
buch. 



The Elemen- 
tarwerk con- 
tains prin- 
ciples from 
Comenius as 
well as Rous- 
seau, and the 
Methodenhuch 
does not fol- 
low Rousseau 
literally. 



posed the entire intellectual curriculum, and the methods 
were purely grammatical. 

As a result, Basedow's suggestions for educational 
improvement attained as great popularity as his theo- 
logical productions had received abuse. After 1767 he 
was allowed by Bernstorff, the Minister of Education, 
to give all his time to reform and yet retain his salary. 
The following year, in his Address on Schools and Studies j 
and their Influence on Public Happiness, he called gen- 
erally upon princes, governments, ecclesiastics, and 
others in power, to assist him in bringing out a work 
on elementary education, the plan of which was de- 
scribed in outline. The emperor of his native land, the 
sovereign of his adopted coimtry, and several other 
rulers of Europe, together with such prominent persons 
as Bernstorff, Behrisch, Lavater, Goethe, and Kant, 
showed great interest, and a subsidy to the sum of ten 
thousand dollars was speedily raised. Six years later, 
Basedow completed his promised textbook, Elementar- 
werk, and the companion work for teachers and parents 
known as Methodenhuch. The Elementarwerk was issued 
in four volumes with one hundred accompanying plates, 
which were too large to be bound in with it, and con- 
tained many of the principles of Comenius as well as 
of Rousseau. It has, in fact, been referred to as 'the 
Orhis Pictus ^ of the eighteenth century,' and gives a 
1 See p. 31 for the OrUs Sensualium Pictus and its method. 



BASEDOW AND THE PHILANTHROPINUM 115 

knowledge of things and words in the form of a dialogue. 
It deals first with natural phenomena and forces, then 
with morals and the mind, and the method of instruc- 
tion in natural religion, and finally with social duties, 
commerce, and affairs. The Methodenbuch, while not 
following Rousseau literally, contains many ideas con- 
cerning the natural training of children that are sugges- 
tive of him. Later, Basedow, together with Campe, His Mowers 
Salzmann, and others of his followers, also produced a children's 
series of popular books especially adapted to the char- amo^ng~them 
acter, interests, and needs of children. Of these works, "^'f ^"^""'^^ 

' Robinson 

which are all largely filled with didactics, moralizing, m imitation of 

Robinson 

religiosity, and scraps of scientific information, the best Crusoe. 
known is Robinson der Jilngern, more often called Swiss 
Family Robinson in Americk. It seems to have been 
suggested by Rousseau's recommendation of Robinson 
Crusoe as a textbook,^ and was published by Campe in 
1779- 



The Course and Methods of the Philanthropinum 

Eight years before this, however, Behrisch had in- '^^^ceieo- 

duced Prince Leopold Friedrich Franz to allow Basedow po^ Base- 
dow founded 
to found at Dessau an educational institution, called the the'Phiian- 

* Philanthropinum,' which should embody that reformer's at Dessau, to 

ideas. Leopold granted him a salary of eleven hundred ^^as. ^ 

1 See p. 93. 



li6 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

thalers,^ and three years later gave him an equipment of 
buildings, grounds, and endowment. At first Basedow 
had but three assistants, but later the number was con- 
siderably increased. The staff then included several 
very able men, — such as Wolke, who had taught at 
Leipzig ; Campe, chaplain at Potsdam ; Salzmann, who 
had been a professor at Erfurt ; and Matthison, the 
poet. The attendance at the Philanthropinum was very 
small in the beginning, since the institution was re- 
garded as an experiment, but eventually the number of 
pupils rose to more than fifty. They came from many 
different countries, and the school soon had a wide 
reputation throughout Europe. After it had been in 
existence about a year and a half, Basedow invited the 
scholars and distinguished men from everywhere to 
attend a great public examination and determine whether 
the school ought to continue. There are extant two 
accounts of this inspection, one by Professor Schummel 
of Magdeburg and the other by Basedow himself, and 
from these we gain most of our information concerning 
the institution. 
The aim of The Underlying principle of the school was "every- 

the school 11 mi , . . i 

was to direct thmg accordmg to nature. The natural mstmcts and 
press^the^"^' interests of the children were only to be directed and 
not altogether suppressed. They were to be trained as 

*A thaler was equivalent to about three shillings, or seventy-three 
cents. 



natural 



BASEDOW AND THE PHILANTHROPINtJM 117 

children and not as adults, and the methods of learning instincts and 

, T mi interests. 

were to be adapted to their stage of mentality. That 
all of the customary unnaturalness, discomfort, and 
want of freedom might be eliminated, the boys were 
plainly dressed in sailor jackets and loose trousers, their 
collars were turned down and were open at the neck, 
and their hair was cut short and was free from powder, 
pomade, and hair bags. 

While universal education was believed in, and rich Universal 
and poor alike were to be trained, it was felt that the wasadvo- 
natural education of the one class was for social activity cfafdis^rnc^ 
and leadership, and of the other for teaching. Conse- tionswere 

^ ^ recognized. 

quently, the wealthy boys were to spend six hours in 
school and two in manual labor, while those from families 
of small means labored six hours and studied two. 
Every one, however, was taught handicrafts — car- Every one 
pentry, turning, planing, and threshing — as a recognition i^duSri? 
of the educative value of constructive work. There t^ali^ng^' 
were also physical exercises and games for all. On the Lati^^ yas 

'■ -^ *=" subordinated 

intellectual side, while Latin was not neglected, more to modem 

languages, 

attention was paid to the vernacular and French than and a wide 

objective 

to the classics, in order that instruction might deal with course was 
realities rather than words. According to the Elemen- p^^'^^'^' 
tarwerk, Basedow planned to create a wide objective and 
practical course. It was to give some account of man, 
including bits of anthropology, anatomy, and physi- 
ology ; of brute creation, especially the uses of domestic 



Ii8 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

animals and their relation to industry; of trees and 

plants, with their growth, culture, and products; of 

minerals and chemicals; of mathematical and physical 

instruments ; and of trades, history, and commerce. He 

afterward admitted that he had overestimated the 

amount of content that was possible for a child, and 

greatly abridged this material.^ 

Languages The most Striking characteristic of the school, however, 

by a)nversa- was its improved mcthods. Languages were taught by 

^ames and Speaking and then by reading, and grammar was not 

drawing; brought in Until late in the course. Facility was ac- 

arithmetic by '^ "^ 

mental quired through conversation, games, pictures, drawing, 

methods; 

geometry by acting plays, and reading on practical and interesting 
geography by subjccts. Similar linguistic methods had been recom- 
DutTrom^ mended by Montaigne, Ratich, and Locke, and largely 
iiome; and ^orked out by Comcnius,^ but were never before made 

eism by con- ^ ' 

f ^^e as practical as by Basedow and his assistants. His in- 
rem nature structiou in arithmetic, geometry, geography, physics, 

ior a, time. 

nature study, and history was fully as progressive as that 
in languages. Arithmetic was taught by mental meth- 
ods, geometry by drawing figures accurately and neatly, 
and geography by beginning with one's home, and ex- 
tending out into the neighborhood, the town, the country, 
and the continent. In a similarly direct way the pupils 
were instructed in matters of actual life. For example, 

1 The actual program of each day is given in full in Barnard, German 
Teachers and Educators, pp. 519 f. ^ See pp. 31 and 46. 



BASEDOW AND THE PHILANTHROPINUM 119 

they cast lots in the classroom to see who should have 
the privilege of describing the tools and processes of a 
trade depicted in an engraving. Finally, the Philanthro- 
pinic plan for teaching the naturalistic reHgion of deism 
biiould be noted. The boys were prepared for learning 
of the existence of God by having their attention turned 
to various features and phenomena of nature and being 
asked what caused them. Then they were kept in the 
house for four or five days in a darkened room, so that 
they would be the more impressed with the wonders of 
creation when they should be released and told of the 
God whose handiwork it was.^ 

The Influence of the Philanthropinum 

Most visitors to the Philanthropinum were greatly Great expec- 

pleased with the institution, especially on account of the had for the 

interested and alert appearance of the pupils. Kant had it prove^cTa 

such high expectations of its results as to declare in 1777 great stimu- 

that it meant "not a slow reform, but a quick revolu- younger 

children. 

tion," and felt that "by the plan of organization it must 
of itself throw off all the faults which belong to its be- 
ginning." He afterward admitted that he had been too 
optimistic, but he still felt that the experiment had been 
well worth while, and had paved the way for better things. 

^ This method of religious education was first practiced by Wolke, but 
*t had been suggested by Basedow in the Elementarwerk (Part I, pp. 87- 
90). 



I20 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



The Philan- 
thropinum 
was soon 
closed, but 
similar insti- 
tutions 
sprang up 
throughout 
Germany, 
and many 
new educa- 
tional ideas 
arose. 



Although it may not have served well for older pupils, it 
was certainly excellent in its stimulus to children under 
ten or twelve, who too often are naturally averse to books, 
and can be captured only by such appeals to the senses 
and to nature. 

Basedow proved temperamentally unfit to direct the 
institution. He soon left, and began to teach privately 
in Dessau and write educational works along the lines 
he had started. Campe, who first superseded him, with- 
drew within the year to found a similar school at Ham- 
burg. Institutions of the same type sprang up elsewhere, 
and some of them had a large influence upon education. 
In 1793 the Philanthropinum at Dessau was closed per- 
manently, and its teachers were scattered through Ger- 
many. Such followers as Wolke, Campe, and Salzmann 
carried on the Philanthropinic movement with great 
vigor. On account of its popularity it was adopted by 
a large number of others, who unfortunately were often 
mountebanks. They prostituted the system to their 
own ends, and the profession of teaching was often 
degraded by them into a mere trade. Nevertheless, the 
Philanthropinum seems not to have been without good 
results, especially when we consider the educational con- 
ditions and the pedagogy of the times. It introduced 
many new ideas into all parts of Germany and Switzer- 
land, and these were carefully worked out by such re- 
formers as Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Herbart. Hence, 



BASEDOW AND THE PHILANTHROPINUM 121 

despite his visionary disposition, his intemperance, and 
his irregularity of living, the reformer who first at- 
tempted to embody the valuable aspects of Rousseau's 
naturaHsm in the education of Germany was Basedow, 
father than Pestalozzi, who afterward transformed it so 
much more successfully. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Sources 

*Basedow, J. B. Elementarwerk and Methodenbuch. 
Campe, J. H. Robinson der JUngere and Theorophon. 
Salzmann, C. G. Conrad Kiefer. 

II. Authorities 

*Barnard, H. German Teachers and Educators. Pp. 488-520. 
*CoMPAYRE, G. History of Pedagogy. Pp. 414 f. 
Garbovicianu, p. Die Didaktik Basedows im Vergleiche zur 

Didaktik des Comenius. 
Goring, H. Ausgewdhlte Schriften mit Basedows Biographic. 
Lange, O. H. Basedow: His Educational Work and Principles, 
Payne, J. Lectures on the History of Education. Pp. 91-96. 
PiNLOCHE, J. A. Basedow et le Philanthropinisme. 
*QuiCK, R. H. Educational Reformers. Chap. XV. 



CHAPTER IX 

PESTALOZZI AND EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 

The happiest educational results of Rousseau came 
through Pestalozzi. Rousseau had shattered the eight- 
eenth-century temple of despotism, privilege, and hypoc- 
risy, but it remained for Pestalozzi to erect a more 
enduring structure out of the ruins. It was Pestalozzi 
that developed the negative and inconsistent naturalism 
of the Emile into a positive attempt to reform corrupt 
society by proper education and a new method of teach-, 
ing. 

The Earlier Life of Pestalozzi 

Pestaiozzi's But to Understand the significance of the experiments, 

by his writings, and principles of this widely beloved reformer, 

flli^enced Ws ^^^ must make a brief study of his life and surroundings. 

Wedf bX^ /^/jaww Heinrich Pestalozzi was born at Zurich in 1746. 

made him Through the death of his father, he was brought up from 

sensitive and /ox 

unpractical, early childhood almost altogether by his mother. She 
was a woman of great unselfishness and genuine piety, 
and her training had a lasting influence upon his educa- 
tional ideals. From this experience in great measure 
must have come his later ideas that the home, as a center 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 123 

of love and cooperation, should be a model for the school, 
and that education should include a training of the heart 
and hand, as well as of the head, if the race were to be 
regenerated. Mothers he certainly held to be the ideal 
teachers, and to them he ever directed his counsel and 
exhortations. Yet to the maternal guidance must also 
be ascribed his extraordinary sensibility, imaginative- 
ness, and unpracticality. 

Another strong influence upon his Hfe was that of his His grand- 
grandfather, pastor in a neighboring village. Through example 
visits with him to the poor, sick, and distressed of the ioTievftet^e 
parish, young Pestalozzi became acquainted with the Jf^^^^fT^, 
degradation and suffering of the peasants and resolved ministry, 

law, 

to relieve and elevate them. Naturally he first turned 
to the ministry as being the best way to accomplish this. 
But he ^ broke down in his trial sermon, and gave up the 
hope of entering this profession. He then turned to the 
study of law, with the idea of defending the rights of his 
people. In this, too, he was destined to be balked; 
strangely enough, through the influence of Rousseau. 
In common with several other students of the University 
of Zurich, he was greatly impressed by the Social Con- 
tract and the Emile, which had recently appeared, and, 
becoming involved with the rest in a radical criticism of 
the government, he saw his dreams of public office and 
useful legislation disappear in thin air. 

Pestalozzi, accordingly, abandoned his legal career. 



124 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



improved 
agriculture, 



Then, in 1769, in the hope of demonstrating to the peas- 
ants the value of improved methods of agriculture, he 
took up, after a year of training, a parcel of waste land 
at Birr. This he called by the name of Neuhof ('new 
farm'). Within five years the experiment proved a 
lamentable failure, but even before the final crash Pesta- 
lozzi had come to feel that his philanthropy had been ab- 
sorbed by a material ambition. A son had meantime 
been born to him, whom he had undertaken to rear upon 
the basis of the Emile, and the results, recorded in a 
Father^s Journal, suggested new ideas and educational 
principles for the regeneration of the masses. He held 
that education did not consist merely in books and 
knowledge, and that the children of the poor could, by 
proper training, be taught to earn their living and at the 
same time develop their intelHgence and moral nature.^ 



and philan- 
thropic edu- 
cation at 
Neuhof 
(Birr). 



His School at Neuhof and the Leonard and Gertrude 

Hence the failure of his agricultural venture afforded 
Pestalozzi the opportunity he craved to experiment with 
philanthropic education. Toward the end of 1774 he 
took into his home some twenty of the most needy chil- 
dren he could find. These he fed, clothed, and treated 
as his own. He gave the boys practical instruction in 
farming and gardening on small tracts, and had the girls 

1 For a more complete account of his conclusions, see de Guimps, 
Pestalozzi, pp. 75-78. 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 125 

trained in domestic duties and needlework. In bad 
weather both sexes gave their time to spinning and 
weaving cotton. They were also trained in the rudiments, 
but were practiced in conversing and in memorizing the 
Bible before learning to read and write. The scholastic 
instruction was given very largely while they were work- 
ing, and, although Pestalozzi had not as yet learned to 
make any direct connection between the occupational 
and the formal elements, this first attempt at an indus- 
trial education made it evident that the two could 
be combined. Within a few months there was a striking 
improvement in the physique, minds, and morals of the 
children, as well as in the use of their hands. But Pesta- 
lozzi was so enthusiastic over the success of his experi- 
ment that he greatly increased the number of children, 
and by 1780 was reduced to bankruptcy. 

Nevertheless, his wider purpose of social reform by when his 
means of education was not allowed to languish alto- experimenit 
gether, for a friend ^ shortly persuaded him to publish his ^e^^^roT'^' 
views. The Evening Hour of a Hermit,'^ a collection of ^^^ ^iews in a 

series of 

one hundred and eighty aphorisms, was his first produc- works, of 

which 

tion. This work contained, as von Raumer puts it, Leonard and 
''the fruit of Pestalozzi's past years and at the same time alone proved 



popular. 



^ Iselin, the editor of Ephemerides. 

2 Die Ahendstunde eines Einsiedlers. A translation of the entire work 
can be found in Barnard, Vol. VI, pp. 169-179, while its essence is given 
by de Guimps, Pestalozzi, pp. 75-78, 



126 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

the seed corn of the years that were to come, — the plan 
and key to his action in pedagogy," but it could be under- 
stood by few of the people and received little attention. 
Pestalozzi was, therefore, advised to put his thought into 
more popular form, and in 1781 he wrote his well-known 
story of Leonard and Gertrude} This work, with the sub- 
sequent additions,^ gives an account of the degraded 
social conditions in the Swiss village of 'BonnaF and the 
changes wrought in them by one simple peasant woman. 
'Gertrude' reforms her drunkard husband, educates her 
children, and causes the whole community to feel her 
influence and adopt her methods. When finally a wise 
schoolmaster comes to the village, he learns from Ger- 
trude the proper conduct of the school and begs for her 
continued cooperation. Then the government becomes 
interested, studies the improvements that have taken 
place, and concludes that the whole country can be re- 

1 Lienhard und Gertrud: ein Buck fur das Volk. 

2 To elucidate more fully the teachings of this story, the following year 
Pestalozzi wrote his Christopher and Eliza, and to show how it could be 
used as a manual of popular education, he later produced The Instruction 
of Children in the Home, and Figures to my ABC Book (afterward called 
Fables), but the public, wishing only to be amused, would not read them, 
and Pestalozzi was driven by popular taste to add other parts to the Leon- 
ard and Gertrude in 1783, 1785, and 1787. A translation of the original 
first volume, with excerpts from the later parts concerning the village 
school, is given in Barnard, American Journal of Education, Vol. VII, 
pp. 525-648. An admirable condensation of the whole work has been 
made by Eva Channing (Boston, 1892). 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 127 

formed in no better way than by imitating Bonnal. 
The Leonard and Gertrude appealed especially to the ro- 
manticism of the period, and constituted Pestalozzi's one 
popular success in literature. It was, however, taken 
simply as an interesting story, and the author's sugges- 
tions for social, political, and educational reform were 
generally passed over.^ 

His School at Stanz and the Observational Methods 

During the last decade of his life at Neuhof , Pestalozzi At fifty-two 

was too busy warding off poverty and starvation to write cha^rge of a 

or develop his principles. But in 1798 a turn in political ^^^^^^Mr^" 

fortunes gave him another opportunity to test his theories '^^ ^^^ Ursu- 

line convent 

by actual practice. In that year Switzerland came under at stanz. 
the control of the French revolutionists, and the inde- 
pendent cantons were united in a Helvetic Republic 
under a directorate ' like that in France. As this move- 
ment promised reform, Pestalozzi enthusiastically sup- 
ported it. He was in turn offered patronage by the new 
government, but he asked only for a school in which he 
might carry out his principles. While the authorities 
were settling upon a site near his home, an unexpected 
occurrence brought him instead to the village of Stanz. 
The Catholic community in this place had refused to 

1 See footnote 2 on p. 126. His attempt to formulate his views in a 
thoroughly philosophical way by his Inquiry into the Course of Nature in 
the Development of the Human Race must have met with very little success. 



128 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Through 

experience 
and observa- 
tion, rather 
than books, 
he taught 
the children 
morality and 
religion. 



number, lan- 
guage, geog- 
raphy, his- 
tory, and 
natural his- 
tory. 



yield to what they considered a foreign and atheistic 
invasion, and most of the able-bodied adults had been 
slaughtered. That left the government with a throng 
of friendless children for whom they felt bound to pro- 
vide. Pestalozzi, being asked to take charge of them, 
started an orphan home and school in the Ursuline con- 
vent at Stanz. Here he soon gained the confidence and 
love of the children, and produced a most noticeable 
improvement in them physically, morally, and intel- 
lectually. 

He declined all assistants, books, and materials, as he 
felt that none of the conventional methods could be of 
service in his work, and he sought to instruct the children 
rather by experience and observation than by abstract 
statements and words. Religion and morals, for ex- 
ample, were never taught by precepts, but through in- 
stances that arose in their own lives he showed them the 
value of self-control, charity, sympathy, and gratitude. 
To a friend he declared : — 

"I strove to awaken the feeling of each virtue before talking 
about it, for I thought it unwise to talk to children on subjects 
which would compel them to speak without thoroughly under- 
standing what they were saying." ^ 

In a similarly concrete way the pupils were instructed in 
number and language work by means of objects, and in 
geography and history by conversation rather than by 
^ See How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, I. 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 129 

books. While they did not learn their natural history 
primarily from nature, they were taught to corroborate 
what they had learned by their own observation. With 
regard to this whole method Pestalozzi said : — 

"I believe that the first development of thought in the child is 
very much disturbed by a wordy system of teaching, which is not 
adapted either to his faculties or the circumstances of his life. 
According to my experience, success depends upon whether what 
is taught to children commends itself to them as true through being 
closely connected with their own observation. As a general rule, 
I attached little importance to the study of words, even when ex- 
planations of the ideas they represented were given." ^ 

In connection with his observational method, Pesta- He sought to 
lozzi at this time began his attempts to reduce all obser- servadonto 
vation to its lowest terms.^ It was while at Stanz, for f^^^^^l for 
example, that he first adopted his well-known plan of ^^f^lf'ij^ 
teaching children to read by means of exercises known ^es'; 
as 'syllabaries.' These joined the five vowels in succes- 
sion to the different consonants, — 'ab, eb, ib, ob, ub,' 
and so on through all the consonants. From the pho- 
netic nature of German spelling, he was able to make the 
exercises very simple, and intended thus to furnish a 
necessary practice in basal syllables. In a similar way 
he hoped to simplify all education to such an extent that 

^ See footnote on p. 128. 

2 The resulting elements he soon came to call the 'A B C of ob- 
servation' (ABC der Anschauung). See pp. 133 and 135. 

K 



I30 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



and to com- 
bine study 
with manual 
labor. 



schools would eventually become unnecessary, and that 
each mother would be able to teach her children and 
continue her own education at the same time. More- 
over, while not altogether successful in his efforts at a 
correlation, Pestalozzi, more than at Neuhof, now 
^^ sought to combine study with manual labor, the school 
with^ the workshop," for, said he : — 

"I am more than ever convinced that as soon as we have edu- 
cational establishments combined with workshops, and conducted 
on a truly psychological basis, a generation will necessarily be 
formed which will show us by experience that our present studies 
do not require one tenth of the time or trouble we now give to them." 



Being forced 
to give up at 
Stanz, he ob- ; 
tained with 
difficulty a 
position at 
Burgdorf, 



The * Institute' at Burgdorf and the Psychologizing of 
Education 

From these methods and principles that Pestalozzi 
started at Stanz eventually developed all his educational 
contributions. But before the close of a year the con- 
vent that had served as such a fruitful experiment station 
was required by the French soldiers for a hospital. As 
soon as he recovered from the terrific physical strain 
under which he had labored, Pestalozzi was forced to seek 
another place in which to continue his educational work. 
But, according to the usual standards for securing a 
position to teach, "he had everything against him; 
thick, indistinct speechj bad writing, ignorance of draw- 
ing, scorn of grammatical learning. He had studied 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 131 

various branches of natural history, but without any 
particular attention either to classification or terminology. 
He was conversant with the ordinary numerical opera- 
tions, but he would have had difficulty to get through a 
really long sum in multiplication or division, and had 
probably never tried to work out a problem in geometry."^ 
And in spite of his understanding of ^'the mind of man 
and the laws of its development, human affections, and 
the art of arousing and ennobling them," ^ he would 
probably have been unable to obtain a school, had it not 
been for certain influential friends in the town of Burg- 
dorf . They secured a position for him, first in the school 
for the tenants and poorer people, and later in the ele- 
mentary school of the citizens. 

In Burgdorf, Pestalozzi ''followed without any plan where he con- 
the empirical method interrupted at Stanz," and ''sought dTveWed 
by every means to bring the elements of reading and arith- ^^ °iethod. 
metic to the greatest simplicity, and by grouping them 
psychologically, enable the child to pass easily and surely 
from the first step to the second, and from the second to 
the third, and so on." ^ He further worked out and He taught 
graduated his 'syllabaries,' and invented the idea of large through the 
movable letters for teaching the children to read. Lan- language^^^' 
guage exercises were given his pupils by means of exam- -gct^^arft^h- 
ining the number, form, position, and color of the designs, meticthrough 

* Charles Monnard, Histoire de la Suisse, continuation de Mailer. 
2 See footnote on p. 128. 



132 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



units,' and 

geometry 

through 

drawing 

lines and 

curves: 



holes, and rents in the wall paper of the school/* and ex- 
pressing their observations in longer and longer sentences, 
which they repeated after him. For arithmetic he de- 
vised boards divided into squares upon which were placed 
dots or lines concretely representing each unit up to one 
hundred. By means of this Hable of units' ^ the pupil 
obtained a clear idea of the meaning of the digits and the 
process of addition, and practiced his knowledge further 
by counting his fingers, beans, pebbles, and other objects. 
Pestalozzi further explained that " after the child has 
come to a full understanding of the combinations of units 
up to ten, and has learned to express himself with ease, 
the objects are again presented, but the questions are 
changed : ^ If we have two objects, how many times one 
object ? ' The child looks, counts, and answers correctly.'' 
In that way the pupils learned to multiply, and the mean- 
ing of division and subtraction was similarly acquired. 
The children were also taught the elements of geometry 
by drawing angles, lines, and curves. Likewise, the de- 
velopment of teaching history, geography, and natural 
history by this method of observation must have been 
continued at Burgdorf. 

1 In the Book for Mothers, the human body, with its parts and relations, 
is especially suggested as the material for conversation, since this is the 
closest to human interests and thought. 

2 An illustration of this table is given in Kriisi, Pestalozzi, p. 1 72. This 
system was probably not completed until Pestalozzi settled at Yverdun, 
and much of the credit for the scheme should go to Kriisi and Schmid. 



i 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 133 

As a result of these experiments, says Pestalozzi, and thus 

''there unfolded itself gradually in my mind the idea of 'ABCof 

the possibility of an A B C of observation/ to which I an?Ms^ ^°^' 

now attach great importance, and with the working out to^t'^hoio- 

of which the whole scheme of a general method of in- gizeeduca- 

* tion.' 

struction in all its scope appeared, though still obscure, 
before my eyes." ^ And the underlying principle of his 
system he shortly formulated most tersely in the state- 
ment, ''I wish to psychologize education."^ By this, 
he showed, is meant the harmonizing of instruction with 
the laws of intellectual development, together with the 
simplification of the elements of knowledge and their 
reduction to a series of exercises so scientifically graded 
that even the lowest classes can obtain the proper phys- 
ical, mental, and moral development. And sense per- 
ception or observation, he holds, when connected with 
language for • expressing the different impressions, is, 
therefore, the foundation of education. 

Despite a want of system and errors in carrying out Pestaiozzi's 
his method, Pestalozzi seems to have produced remark- Burgdorf 
able results from the start. At the first annual exam- densely 
ination the Burgdorf School Commission wrote him that successful, — 

° pupils 

1 See footnote 2 on p. 129. Cf. also footnote 2 on p. 135. 

2 See footnote on p. 128. 

' Ich will den menschlichen Unterricht psychologisieren. This formula 
was made by him when asked for a written statement of his system by the 
'Friends of Education,' a society that was striving to propagate his views. 



134 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 
poured in, " the Surprising progress of your little scholars of various 

progressive . . , i • i i 

teachers Capacities snows plainly that every one is good for some- 

siThim, and thing, if the teacher knows how to get at his abilities and 

vi'sitorT''^'"^ develop them according to the laws of psychology." And 

flocked there ^]^g reformer soon met with even greater success in a 

school of his own. In January, 1801, the government 

granted him the free use of the 'castle,' or town hall, of 

Burgdorf and a small subsidy for his 'institute.' Pupils 

poured in ; a number of progressive teachers, including 

Kriisi, Tobler, Buss, and Niederer,^ came to assist him ; 

many persons of prominence visited the school and made 

most favorable reports upon its methods; and during 

the following three years and a half the Pestalozzian 

views on education were systematically developed and 

appHed. 

How Gertrude Teaches Her Children and Other 
Works 

Pestalozzi was also able at Burgdorf to undertake a de- 
tailed statement of his method by the publication in Octp- 

1 Hermann Kriisi, a young schoolmaster of Gais, had, during a famine in 
Appenzell, brought a troop of starving children to Burgdorf at the invita- 
tion of Fischer, a friend of Pestalozzi. Fischer died shortly afterward, 
and Krusi joined Pestalozzi's venture. Through Kriisi, the services of 
Tobler, "a private tutor whose youth had been much neglected," and of 
Buss, "a bookbinder, who devoted his leisure to singing and drawing," 
were also secured for the institute. Niederer was a clergyman and 
philosopher, who gave up his parochial duties to work with Pestalozzi. 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 135 

ber, 1 801, of his How Gertrude Teaches Her Children} ThisI To explain 
work does not mention Gertrude, but consists of fifteenljindetdi°he 
letters to his friend, Gessner. The first two letters con- ^ ^q^X^°'^ 
tain biographical details, especially concerning the meet- S'^^'^^'' 
ing with his assistant teachers. Then follows an account 
of his general principles ; of the specific teaching of lan- 
guage, drawing, writing, measuring, and number by 
means of observation ; of the elementary books that he 
contemplates writing, — the A B C of Observation and 
the Book for Mothers; ^ of the reform in elementary edu- 
cation and of the need of judgment as well as knowledge ; 
and of moral and religious development. Like all of 
Pestalozzi's works, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children 
is quite lacking in both plan and proportion, and is filled 
with repetitions and digressions. It contains, however, ( 
the foundation of his system and of most modern reform 
in elementary education, and has to be studied to reveal 
its values. It has already been quoted several times 
directly, but the following summary of its principles, 
made by Pestalozzi's biographer, Morf, after a most care- 

1 Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder lehrt. 

^ A B C der Anschauung and Buch der Mutter. The Book for Mothers 
was later written under Pestalozzi's direction at Burgdorf by Kriisi. It 
completely failed in its purpose, however, since the average mother was 
unable to break from the ideals and habits of her own schooldays. The 
A B C of Observation also appeared, and during this period Pestalozzi and 
his assistants likewise produced a variety of books applying the new 
method to various school subjects. 



136 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

ful study of this unsystematic work, may serve to give 
an idea of Pestalozzi's educational creed. He had come 
to beHeve : — 

"i. Observation is the foundation of instruction. 

"2. Language must be connected with observation. 

"3. The time for learning is not the time for judgment and 
criticism. 

"4. In each branch, instruction must begin with the simplest 
elements, and proceed gradually by following the child's develop- 
ment; that is, by a series of steps which are psychologically 
connected. 

"5. A pause must be made at each stage of the instruction 
sufficiently long for the child to get the new matter thoroughly 
into his grasp and under his control. 

"6. Teaching must follow the path of development, and not 
that of dogmatic exposition. 

"7. The individuality of the pupil must be sacred for the 
teacher. 

"8. The chief aim of elementary instruction is not to furnish 
the child with knowledge and talents, but to develop and increase 
the powers of his mind. 

"9. To knowledge must be joined power; to what is known, 
the ability to turn it to account. 

" 10. The relations between master and pupil, especially so far 
as discipHne is concerned, must be established and regulated by love. 
"11. Instruction must be subordinated to the higher end of 
education." 

Pestalozzi's Attempted Union with Fellenberg 

While this productive work at Burgdorf was at its 
height, a change in the political situation overthrew 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 137 

everything. In 1804 the cantonal government demanded But in 1804 
back the ^castle/ although it turned over to Pestalozzi menttook 
an old convent at Miinchenbuchsee. For a few months <^^^^g^jg ^^^^ 
the reformer made a fruitless attempt to cooperate in his ^^^^^ ^^^ 
new location with Emanuel von Fellenberg (17 71-1844), cooperate 

with Fellen- 

who had founded in the neighboring Hofwyl a prosper- berg's 'agri- 

. , , , -r. T . . . , mi • ciiltural in- 

ous mdustrial school upon Pestalozzian prmciples. This stitute' at 
school of Fellenberg has played so important a part in buchsee,^' 
American educational history as to deserve more extended 
consideration than can be given here. The founder 
had, from his early youth, felt a great S3nnpathy for 
the poor and unfortunate, and when, while holding an 
important government office, he came to despair of 
ever accomplishing anything by legislation, he turned 
his attention directly to practical educational reform. 
He purchased an estate at Hofwyl,^ and started in- 
dustrial training on tjie basis of Pestalozzi's experiences, 
with which he had long been acquainted. Owing to his 
ability as an organizer and administrator, his school was 
conducted with ever increasing success from 1804 im- 
til his death. He was careful to introduce the various 
features of his work gradually. Believing that agricul- 
ture, as the chief industry of the country, would afford 
the most effective physical and intellectual training, he 

^ It is said that the name of the estate had been Wylhof, but that 
Fellenberg inverted the syllables to indicate the radical nature of his 
reforms. 



138 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

laid out a farm of some six hundred acres, and, with the 
addition of the necessary workshops, undertook to train 
farm laborers, cartmakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, 
locksmiths, shoemakers, and tailors. This ^Agricultural 
Institute ' furnished a practical training for the poor and 
enabled them to support themselves by their labor while 
being educated. Through the same institution he also 
imdertook to train rural school-teachers. But his work 
did not stop there. He felt that the wealthy should 
understand and be more in sympathy with the laboring 
classes, and learn how to direct their work intelligently. 
Accordingly, he established on the estate a 'Literary 
Institute,' with the usual classical course for the boys 
of the upper classes. Both sets of boys had to culti- 
vate gardens and work on the farm, and in many other 
ways come into touch and mutual understanding. 



Pestalozzi 
transferred 
his 'institute' 
to Yverdun, 
where his 
success was 
greater than 
ever. 



The * Institute' at Yverdun and the Culmination of 
the Pestalozzian Methods 

When, however, despite their similarity of purpose, a 
marked difference of temperaments made a union of the 
work of Pestalozzi and Fellenberg impossible, Pestalozzi 
transferred his school to Yverdun in 1805, and was soon 
followed by most of his assistants. The 'institute' here 
sprang into fame almost immediately, and increased in 
numbers and prosperity for several years. Children 
were sent to Yverdun from great distances, and teachers 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 139 

thronged here to learn and apply the new principles at 
home. Visitors and sightseers came from all parts of 
Europe and America. Pestalozzi was decorated by the 
Czar of Russia, and presented with distinctions from 
other monarchs. A flourishing girls' school grew up * 
near the institute under the direction of associates, and 
for a short time Pestalozzi himself conducted a school 
for orphans in the neighborhood, while Conrad Naef of 
Zurich came to Yverdun and founded a celebrated in- 
stitution for the deaf and dumb upon the Pestalozzian 
principles. 

The work of the institute at Yverdun was a continua- Here he " 
tion and culmination of that started at Stanz and Burg- th^e °syUa- 
dorf . It was a great center of educational experimenta- ^^^^^ ^^'^ 
tion, and nearly every advanced method characteristic of "^\^^' f^^ 

' -^ -^ added the 

present elementary education was first undertaken there, 'table of 

fractions' 

The keynote in teaching all subjects was observation and the 
connected with language. The children were taught to fractions of, 
observe correctly and form the right idea of the relations ^^^^^^"^^^ ' 
of things, and so to have no difficulty in expressing clearly 
what they thoroughly understood. The simplification 
introduced through the 'syllabaries' and 'table of units' 
was further elaborated. A 'table of fractions' was also 
devised for teaching that subject concretely. It con- 
sisted of a series of squares, which could be divided in- 
definitely and in different ways. Some of the squares 
were whole, while others were divided horizontally into 



I40 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



two, three, or even ten equal parts. The pupil thus 
learned by observation to count the parts of units and 
form them into integers. There was further developed 
a 'table of fractions of fractions,' or compound fractions,^ 
in which the squares were divided, not only horizon- 
tally, but vertically, so that the method of reducing two 
fractions to the same denominator might be self-evident. 
It was in this number work that the Pestalozzians were 
most radical. By means of various devices Kriisi, and 
afterward Schmid ^ even more, attained great clearness, 
accuracy, and rapidity in arithmetic. The work was 
often done aloud without paper, and many of the students 
became most apt in calculation. 

Similarly, in order to draw and write, the pupil was first 
taught the simple elements of form. The consecutive 
exercises for building up form from its elements, however, 
Pestalozzi was not happy in determining, but Buss success- 
from objects; fully worked out an 'alphabet of form.' Objects, such as 
sticks or pencils, were placed in different directions, and 
lines representing them were drawn on the board or slate un- 
til all elementary forms, straight or curved, were mastered. 
The pupils combined these elements, instead of cop3dng 



drawing, 
writing, and 
geometry 
were taught 
through ele- 
ments of 
form taken 



1 This table can be found in the Holland, Turner, and Cooke edition 
(Syracuse, 1898) of How Gertrude Teaches Her Children^ p. 217. 

2 Joseph Schmid was a Tyrolese shepherd boy, who had first come to 
Yverdun as a pupil, but because of his brilliancy was soon promoted to be 
an assistant master. 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 141 

models, and were encouraged to design symmetrical and 
graceful figures. This also paved the way for writing, 
for, said Pestalozzi, ^^In endeavoring to teach writing, 
I found I must begin by teaching drawing." The chil- 
dren wrote on their slates, beginning with the easiest 
letters and gradually forming words from them, but soon 
learned to write on paper with a pen. Writing was, 
however, taught in connection with reading, although 
begun somewhat later than that study. Constructive 
geometry was also learned through drawing. Much 
use was made of squares, which were divided into smaller 
squares or rectangles, and thus sense impression prepara- 
tory to geometry was furnished. The pupils were taught 
to distinguish, first vertical, horizontal, oblique, and par- 
allel lines; then they learned right, acute, and obtuse 
angles, different kinds of triangles, quadrilaterals, and 
other figures ; and finally discovered at how many points 
a certain number of straight lines may be made to cut 
one another, and how many angles, triangles, and quad- 
rilaterals can be formed. To make the matter more 
concrete the figures were often cut out of cardboard or 
made into models. Thus the pupils were led up to the- 
oretical geometry, which was made more valuable and 
interesting by their working out the demonstrations for 
themselves, instead of learning them from a book. 

In nature study, geography, and history the concrete natural sd- 
observational work was similarly continued. Trees, 



142 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



geography 
from actual 
observation; 
music from 
its simplest 
tone ele- 
ments; and 
religion and 
morality 
from con- 
crete exam- 
ples. 



flowers, and birds were viewed, drawn, and discussed. 
The pupils began in geography by acquiring the points 
of the compass and relative positions, and from this 
knowledge observed and described some familiar place. 
The valley of the Buron near at hand was observed in 
detail and modeled upon long tables in clay brought 
from its sides. Then the pupils were shown the map 
for the first time and easily grasped the meaning of its 
symbols. Pestalozzi himself did not altogether under- 
stand the real purpose of geography, regarding it rather 
as a means for cultivating language, but he inspired some 
of his assistants, like Tobler and Ritter, with a great love 
for the subject and a desire to work it out psychologically. 
Nor was Pestalozzi sufficiently acquainted with music 
to apply his method to it. This was, however, done by 
his friend, Nageli, a Swiss composer of note, who reduced 
it to its simplest elements and then combined and devel- 
oped these progressively into more complex and con- 
nected wholes. Pupils were thus led to discover pleasing 
combinations and develop musical inventiveness. In 
religious and moral training, as at Stanz, Pestalozzi 
sought by concrete examples to quicken the germ of 
conscience into action and develop it by successive steps. 
The love of God he believed could be taught better 
through the child's love for his mother ^ and other human 



* See How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, XIV and XV. 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 143 

beings than through dogma and catechism, and the sig- 
nificance of obedience, duty, and unselfishness through 
being required to wait before having his desires fulfilled, 
and so realizing that his own is not the only will or pleas- 
ure in the world. 

During this period, also, many books upon the applica- Many books 
tions of the new methods were issued both by Pestalozzi lifethods^ ^^^ 
and his assistants. The most famous was probably ^^^^^^^^® • 
Schmid's Exercises on Numbers and Forms. Niederer also 
undertook to put the doctrines of Pestalozzi into philo- 
sophic form, and published several treatises and pam- 
phlets. A Weekly Journal was likewise issued for several 
years, and a complete edition of Pestalozzi's works was 
brought out. 

With all these achievements, however, the institute But, owing 
of Yverdun was slowly dying. Pestalozzi was never a unpractical- 
practical administrator, and he was now an old man. tlmd dis" 
The death of his wife deprived him of most of the mental tensions, and 

^ the mterrup- 

balance that remained to him. He came to depend al- tions from 

visitors, the 

most entirely upon his assistant, Schmid, who was m.ost institute at 

despotic and drove away several of the best teachers dosed after 

from the institute. Disputes and lawsuits became score of ^ 

common, and the finances of the institution went from peJ^i^f^z? 

bad to worse. The constant interruptions of visitors died two 

years 

also demoralized the school. Finally, in 1825, after an later. 
existence of a score of years and with a reputation through- 
out the civilized world, the institute was closed. Pesta- 



144 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

lozzi retired to Neuhof, then in possession of his grand- 
son. Two years later he died and was buried near his 
old home beside the school of the little village.^ 

Pestalozzi's Educational Aim 

Pestaiozzi After this account of Pestalozzi's personality, experi- 

5kit R?us- ments, and writings, we are ready to discuss his aim in 
raUsm'b^^^" ^ducatiou and to understand in what sense his prin- 
defining ciples wcre a continuation of Rousseau's 'naturalism.' 

education as ^ 

a natural In his first Writing, The Evening Hour of a Hermit^ he 

development 

of human held that ''all the beneficent powers of man are due to 
and^cin-^' neither art nor chance, but to nature," and that educa- 
S't\^e ^^'' tion should follow "the course laid down by nature." 
catbn oUhe ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ works he Constantly returns to the analogy 
^^y- of the child's development with that of the natural growth 

of the plant or animal. For example, he writes : — 

"Sound education stands before me symbolized by a tree planted 
near fertilizing waters. A little seed, which contains the design of 
the tree, its form and proportions, is placed in the soil. See how 
It germinates and expands into trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, 
and fruit. The whole tree is an uninterrupted chain of organic 
parts, the plan of which existed in its seed and root. Man is simi- 
lar to the tree. In the new-born child are hidden those faculties 
which are to unfold during life. The individual and separate organs 
of his being form themselves gradually into unison, and build up 
humanity in the image of God." 

^ A memorial inscription, which now covers the rear of the school- 
house, after relating his labors and achievements, closes with these 
fitting words : " Man, Christian, citizen. Everything for others, noth- 
ing for self. Blessings on his name." 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 145 

Consequently, Pestalozzi defines education as "the nat- 
ural, progressive, and harmonious development of all the 
powers and capacities of the human being,'' and insists 
that "the knowledge to which the child is to be led by 
instruction must, therefore, be subjected to a certain 
order of succession, the beginning of which must be 
adapted to the first unfolding of his powers, and the prog- 
ress kept exactly parallel to that of his development." In 
contrast to this education in harmony with nature, Pesta- 
lozzi saw that the traditional practices of the times gave 
the pupil a mere abiHty to read words, a memory knowl- 
edge of mathematics, and a superficial culture through 
the classics that was purely formal and ineffective for 
real development. "Our unpsychological schools," he 
declares, "are essentially only artificial stifling machines 
for destroying all the results of the power and experience 
that nature herself brings to life. . . . After the children 
have enjoyed the happiness of sensuous life for five 
whole years, we make all nature around them vanish 
before their eyes ; tyrannically stop the delightful course 
of their unrestrained freedom ; pen them up like sheep, 
whole flocks huddled together in stinking rooms; piti- 
lessly chain them for hours, days, weeks, months, years, 
to the contemplation of unnatural and unattractive 
letters, and, contrasted with their former condition, to a 
maddening course of Hfe." 

This need for gradually developing the powers of the 



146 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

child in keeping with nature and the complete absence of 
it in the schools of the period had been pointed out by- 
Rousseau, but in a purely destructive way. He talked 
blindly in his 'naturalism' about an abandonment of all 
society and civilization and a return to nature, but he 
failed to make his educational doctrine concrete and 
He further explicit and to apply it to the school. Pestalozzi further 
Rousseiian- modified and extended the Rousselian doctrine by recom- 
ingit^o aU^" sending its application to all children, whatever their 
children. , circumstanccs and abilities. Where Rousseau evidently 
had only the young aristocrat in mind in the education 
of Emile, Pestalozzi held that poverty could be relieved 
and society reformed only through ridding each and every 
one of his degradation by means of mental and moral 
development. Accordingly, he was the stanch advocate 
of miiversal education, as shown by the protest implied 
in the following simile : — 

"As far as I am acquainted with popular instruction, it appears 
to me like a large house, whose uppermost story shines in splendor 
of highly finished art, but is occupied by only a few. In the middle 
story is a great crowd, but the stairs by which the upper one may 
be reached in an approved and respectable manner are wanting; 
if the attempt be made in a less regular way, the leg or arm used 
as a means of progress may be broken. In the lowest story is an 
immense throng of people, who have precisely the same right to 
enjoy the light of the sun as those in the upper one ; but they are 
left in utter darkness and not even allowed to gaze at the mag- 
nificence above." 



PESTAL02Z1, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 147 

His General Method and Its Applications 

Pestalozzi's underlying principle for producing this His general 
natural development of the powers of all and so for re- training in 
forming social conditions was to train his pupils in 'ob- throuXthT' 
servation.' ^ He felt that clear ideas could be formed surrounding 

matenal, 

only through careful sense perceptions, and was thor- analysis into 

its simplest 

oughly opposed to the mechanical memorizing with little elements, 
understanding that was current in the schools of the day. sion in words. 
In all studies, therefore, he strove to direct the senses of the 
pupils to outer objects and to arouse their consciousness 
by the impressions thus produced. While such 'object 
lessons' did not exist in the traditionalized schools, 
Pestalozzi insisted that the material for them is all about 
the children, and that it can best be obtained in the home 
and school and in the ordinary occupations, surroundings, 
and experiences of life. His method in general seems to 
have been to analyze each subject into its simplest ele- 
ments and to develop it by graded exercises based as 
far as possible upon the study of objects rather than 
words. Yet Pestalozzi felt that "experiences must be 
clearly expressed in words, or otherwise there arises the 
same danger that characterizes the dominant word 
teaching, — that of attributing entirely erroneous ideas 
to words." Accordingly, as shown in the summary of 
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children,^ in all instruction 
he would connect language with observation. 

^ I.e. Anschauung. 2 g^e p. 136. 



148 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



This received 
special appli- 
cations to 
language, 
arithmetic, 
drawing, 
writing, 
geometry, 
geography, 
and other 
subjects of 
the curricu- 
lum. 



The application of this method of natural development 
by means of analysis, observation, and expression to the 
various studies constituted the most far-reaching work 
of Pestalozzi. The special applications of this general 
method that were worked out by him and his followers 
in the most common subjects of the curriculum have been 
described in detail in the account of his work at Stanz, 
Burgdorf, and Yverdun. Language was taught, not by 
abstract rules, but by conversation concerning objects. 
As thinking is thus made to precede language, speaking 
is held to precede grammar, reading, spelling, and com- 
position. The language training began with single 
elements or sounds, learned through the 'syllabaries'; 
from these words were built up; and from words, sen- 
tences. As sounds were the elements in language, 
numbers were the basis of arithmetic. Here again ob- 
servation was used, and numbers and their relations were 
taught the pupil through objects. For this purpose the 
various tables of units, fractions, and compound fractions 
were devised. Similarly, from the rudiments of form were 
taught drawing, writing, and constructive and theoret- 
ical geometry. For the study of geography, nature, 
and history, elements were found in the locality that 
could be combined until the whole world and all the 
relations of man were worked out. Music was re- 
duced to its simplest elements and progressively de- 
veloped, and moral and religious training was given 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 149 

through the ordinary concrete relations and experiences 
of Hfe. 

The discipline connected with Pestalozzi's method Hisdisd- 
was naturally mild. Throughout his work he main- miid. 
tained that the school should be as nearly like the 
home as possible, and that the chief incentives to right 
are not fear, but kindness and love. In such a sym- 
pathetic atmosphere, where the pupils were constantly 
busied with interesting activities, and all their physical, 
intellectual, and moral needs were regarded, it is not 
remarkable that severe punishment was seldom required. 
On this point Pestalozzi most sensibly remarks : — 

"I do not venture to assert that corporal punishment is inad- 
missible, but I do object to its application when the teacher or 
the method is at fault and not the children." 

The Permanent Influence of His Principles 

It is easy to exaggerate the achievements of this Pestalozzi 
almost sainted reformer of Switzerland. Pestalozzi's vay^originai 
doctrines were -neither very original nor well carried entinSs doc- 
out. His merit lay in making concrete and positive t"^^^' 
the abstract and general principles of Rousseau, and in 
applying them to the schools. Even in this he some- 
what failed in practicality and consistency. He was 
often unable to apply his own method; he grasped 
principles, but not details. While he stated his views 
in general most convincingly, we have seen that much 



150 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

had to be worked out by his assistants and followers. 
This he realized when he declared : — 

"I cannot say that it is I who have created what you see before 
you now. Niederer, Kriisi, and Schmid would laugh if I called 
myself their master. I am good neither at figures nor writing; 
I know nothing about grammar, mathematics, or any other science ; 
the most ignorant of our pupils knows more of these things than I 
do. I am but the initiative of the institute and depend upon others 
to carry out my views." 

Often he badly violated his own principles. Although 

strongly opposed to all verbal and memoriter teaching, 

in language work he made the mistake of shaping the 

sentences for his pupils and having them repeat after 

him ; he insisted upon teaching reading and spelling by 

pronouncing every possible variety of syllable; and in 

geography, history, and nature study he required the 

pupils to commit mere lists of important places, facts, 

or objects arranged in alphabetic order. 

and was often Moreover, as can be seen both in his educational 

inaccurate' experiments and his writings, Pestalozzi was groping 

and lacking ^^^ ncvcr posscsscd full insight. His works are poorly 

in compre- ■^ 

hensivemess. arranged, repetitious, and inaccurate. There was little 

organization or order in his schools. Toward the close 

of his life, he modestly confessed : — 

" Poor, weak, humble, unworthy, incapable, and ignorant, I yet 
set myself to my work. The world accounted it madness, but God's 
hand was with me. My work prospered. I found friends who 
loved both it and me. I knew not what I did, I hardly knew what 
I wanted. And yet my work prospered." 1, 



PESTAL0Z2I, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 151 

The inconsistency and incompleteness of Pestalozzi's Buthisprfn- 
work, however, is of small import when compared with Sshedthe 
its influence upon society and education. The value of em^^rdagogy 
his achievements rests, not in their adequacy or finality, ^."^ ^^"^^' 
but in the fact that they were the germ of all modern 
pedagogy and reform. In the eighteenth century caste 
ruled through wealth and education, while the masses, 
who supported the owners of the land in idleness and 
luxury, were sunk in ignorance, poverty, and vice. 
The schools for the common people were exceedingly 
few, the content of education was largely limited by 
ecclesiastical authority, and the methods were tra- 
ditional and verbal. Brutal discipline and corporal 
punishment accompanied the memoriter methods. The 
teachers generally had received little training, and were 
selected at random. Often it was only the old soldier, 
widow, servant, or workman who gathered the children 
for an hour or two on Sundays to learn the rudiments. 
Ordinarily the pay was wretched, no lodgings were 
provided for the teacher, and he had often to add domes- 
tic service to his duties, in order to secure food and 
clothing. 

In the midst of such conditions appeared this Swiss Heheidedu- 
reformer and most famous of modern educators, who a^p^n^acea^ 
never ceased to work for the reformation of society fo^^aii social 
through education. He saw what education might do 
to purify social conditions and to elevate the people, 



152 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

and attempted to apply it. As Voltaire, Rousseau, and 
others had held that the panacea for the corrupt times 
was rationalism, atheism, deism, socialism, anarchy, or 
individualism, Pestalozzi found his remedy in education. 
Like Rousseau, he keenly felt the injustice, unnatural- 
ness, and degradation of the existing society, but he 
was not content to stop with mere destruction and 
negations. He saw what education might do to purify 
social conditions and to elevate the people, and he 
burned to apply it universally and to develop methods 
in keeping with nature. He would make Rousseau's 
naturalism specific and extend it to all. 
His Hence through Pestalozzi has gradually been 

witrSiatof strengthened the demand for universal popular educa- 
Feiienberg, ^^^^ Through his example at Neuhof and Stanz, and 



various types gtiH more through the model institutions of his prac- 

of industrial ^ . 

education. tical disciple, Fellenberg, at Hofwyl, various types of 
industrial education have come to supplement the 
academic courses, and extend the work of the school to 
a larger number of pupils. The poor, the defective, and 
the degraded have, through his efforts, been redeemed and 
given an opportunity in life, and many children have been 
kept in school that would inevitably have fallen by the 
wayside. Public schools, special industrial schools, 
orphanages, institutions for the deaf and blind, reforma- 
tories, and even prisons have thus yielded rich harvests 
because of his first sowing. Likewise, the tendency of 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 153 

modern society to care for the education of the unfor- 
tunate through industrial training has sprung from the 
philanthropic spirit of Pestalozzi and his endeavors to 
furnish educational opportunities for all. 

The efforts of Pestalozzi to evolve a natural method His natural 
of teaching were likewise fruitful. Through his ex- replaced the 
periments, educational theory has come, in place of p^ncipks, 
formal principles and traditional processes, to work out ^J^g'^h^Q^Qfto 
carefully and patiently the development of the child approach the 

sympathy 

mind and to embody the results in practice. And, above of the home, 
all, Pestalozzi's work has made clear the new spirit in the 
school by which it has approached the atmosphere of 
the home. He found the proper relation of pupil and 
teacher to exist in sympathy and friendship, or, as he 
states it, in ^love.' This attitude constituted the 
greatest contrast to that of the brutal schools of the 
times and introduced a new conception into education. 

What, then, if Pestalozzi be right in saying, "My n his system 
life has produced nothing whole, nothing complete ; my doLTand 
work cannot, then, either be a whole, nor complete"? ^^^Jfor^^tlat 
If he never produced a closed and perfected system, so reason the 

more enec- 

much the better. It is not merely the form of his tive. 
experiments nor even the results, but the fact that he 
believed in finding his theory through experiment, and 
not tradition, that made the work of Pestalozzi sugges- 
tive and fruitful afterward. In fact, whenever his 
practice was most fixed, it was least effective; and 



154 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

wherever his spirit has since prevailed, the most intel- 
ligent practice has resulted. The nineteenth century- 
was suffused with his principles, and his method has 
become the basis of all subsequent reform. The sig- 
nificance of both his theory and practice has become 
more and more evident as the years have passed. 



Pestalozzi's 
principles 
were spread 
by liis dis- 
ciples 

throughout 
Europe, — 
Switzerland, 



The Spread of Pestalozzian Schools and Methods 
through Europe 

The principles of Pestalozzi and institutions similar 
to his were soon spread by his assistants and others 
throughout Europe. Strange to say, as a result of 
their familiarity with his weaknesses and the conserva- 
tism resulting from isolation, the Swiss were, as a whole, 
rather slow to incorporate the Pestalozzian improve- 
ments in their school organization and methods of 
teaching. Zurich was, however, an exception to the 
general rule. This city was naturally more progressive 
and had previously been a seat of reform in matters 
religious.^ Here Zeller of Wurtemberg, who had visited 
Burgdorf and lectured at Hofwyl, was early invited to 
give three courses of lectures in aid of the establishment 
of a teachers' seminary upon the Pestalozzian principles. 
A large number of teachers, clergymen, and persons of 
prominence heard these lectures, and thus increased the 
body of those disseminating the new educational reforms. 

1 See Graves, A History of Education during the Transition, pp. 1 89 f. 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 155 

Kriisi, after leaving the institute at Yverdun, also 
founded a number of schools and carried Pestalozzian- 
ism into various parts of Switzerland. He finally, in 
1833, became the director of a teachers' seminary at his 
native village of Gais. Near this institution he founded 
two Pestalozzian schools under the management of his 
daughter, and during the last decade of his life con- 
tributed largely to the Pestalozzian literature. Many 
other disciples eventually started or reorganized schools 
in various parts of Switzerland upon the principles of 
Pestalozzi, and, before the middle of the nineteenth 
century, educational conditions had greatly changed in 
Switzerland. Pestalozzi's 'observation' methods were 
in general use, every canton had its 'farm school,' and 
industrial training had been introduced into most of the 
normal schools. 

But the reforms never secured the hold upon the coun- Prussia, 
try of their origin that they did in Germany. The 
innovations were most remarkable in Prussia, and the 
system there has, in consequence, often been referred 
to as the 'Prussian-Pestalozzian.' By the beginning of 
the nineteenth century Pestalozzianism began to find 
its way there. In 1801 the appeal of Pestalozzi for a 
public subscription in behalf of his project at Burgdorf 
was warmly supported. The next year the publication 
by Herbart of Pestalozzi'' s A B C of Observation attracted 
much attention. A representative was sent from 



, 156 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

Prussia to Burgdorf to report upon the new system in 
1803. Meanwhile the Pestalozzian missionaries were 
fast converting the land. Plamann, who had visited 
Burgdorf, established in 1805, after several other edu- 
cational enterprises, a Pestalozzian school in Berlin/ 
and published several books applying the new methods 
to language, geography, and natural history. The same 
year Griiner opened a similar school at Frankfurt, 
which was later the means of starting Froebel upon an 
educational career. Zeller was coaxed away from Wiir- 
temberg, and in the seminary at Konigsberg lectured 
to large audiences, and organized a Pestalozzian orphan- 
age there. A similar institution for educating orphans 
was opened at Potsdam by von Turck. In 1808, two 
of Pestalozzi's pupils, Nicolovius and Silvern, were made 
directors of public instruction in Prussia, and sent 
seventeen brilliant young men to Yverdun to study for 
three years. Upon their return these vigorous youthful 
educators zealously advanced the cause. The greatest 
impulse, however, was given the movement by the phi- 
losopher, Fichte. In the course of his Addresses to the 
German Nation, 1 807-1808, he described the work of 
Pestalozzi and declared : — 

"To the course of instruction which has been invented and 
brought forward by Heinrich Pestalozzi, and which is now being 

1 Froebel taught in this school while studying at the University of 
Berlin. See p. 199. 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 157 

successfully carried out under his direction, must we look for our 
regeneration." ^ 

In this position Fichte was ardently supported by 
King Friedrich Wilhelm III, and even more by his 
noble queen, Luise, who now felt that only through 
these advanced educational principles could a restora- 
tion of the territory and prestige lost to Napoleon at 
Jena be effected. Throughout his reign the king took 
the keenest interest in the Pestalozzian schools, and the 
queen frequently went to visit the institutions of 
ZeUer. 

A similar spirit was animating the other states of and other 
Germany. As early as 1803, Bavaria sent an educator Gemany, 
named Miiller to Burgdorf to study the methods, 
and upon his return he started a school at Mainz. 
Saxony authorized Blochmann, a former pupil of Pesta- 
lozzi, to reorganize its schools upon the new basis. 
Through Denzel, Wtirtemberg introduced the new 
methods, and during the first decade of the century 
many Pestalozzians were appointed seminary directors 
and school inspectors. Denzel also organized the school 
system for the duchy of Nassau. The Princess Pauline 
of Detmold and other rulers were likewise eager to im- 
prove the education of their realms by the introduction 

^ The Reden an die Deutsche Nation number fourteen in all. This 
indorsement of Pestalozzi's principles occurs in the tenth. 



158 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

of the new principles. Everywhere in Germany the 
greatest enthusiasm prevailed among teachers, state 
officials, and princes. 

Thus in place of the reading, singing, and memoriz- 
ing of texts, songs, and catechism, under the direction of 
incompetent choristers and sextons, with unsanitary 
buildings and brutal punishment, all Germany has come 
to have in each village an institution for training real 
men and women. Each school is under the guidance of 
a devoted, humane, and seminary-bred teacher, and 
the methods in religion, reading, arithmetic, history, 
geography, and elementary science are vitalized and 
interesting. Moreover, the industrial work suggested 
by Pestalozzi and Fellenberg is in successful operation 
in most of the reform schools, as well as in the Fort- 
hildungsschulen (^continuation schools') of the regular 
system. As a result, the German schools have for the 
past three or four generations been considered models, 
and have been visited by educators and distinguished 
men from every land. 
France, In France the spread of Pestalozzianism was at first 

prevented by the military spirit of the time and by the 
apathy in education, and later, when the reaction 
occurred, the schools came under ecclesiastical control 
and had little influence upon the people. Nevertheless, 
there were evidences of interest in the new doctrines. 
General Jullien came to Yverdun to study the methods, 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 159 

and issued two commendatory reports, which induced 
some thirty French pupils to go to Pestalozzi's institute. 
Chavannes also published a treatise upon the Pesta- 
lozzian methods in 1805. Three years later the philoso- 
pher, de Biran, founded a Pestalozzian school under the 
management of a certain Barraud, whom he had sent to 
study under Pestalozzi. These efforts, however, had 
little effect upon education, and the Pestalozzian prin- 
ciples did not make much headway in France up to the 
revolution of 1830. After that time they rapidly became 
popular, especially through Victor Cousin. This famous 
professor and minister of public instruction issued in 
1835 a Report on the State of Puhlic Instruction in Prussia, 
which showed the great merit of Pestalozzianism in the 
elementary schools of that country. The other great 
minister, Guizot, had likewise recommended the Prus- 
sian schools as the best type for the reform movement, 
and had shown himself most zealous in training teachers 
for their vocation after the ideals of Pestalozzi. 

Spain at first took kindly to the new methods. A Spain, 
few schools were founded on these principles, and a 
number of pupils sent to Pestalozzi through the gov- 
ernment, but a reaction soon occurred and education 
was turned over to the ecclesiastical authorities. In 
Russia the Czar showed himself interested in Pestalozzi's Russia, 
work, a school similar to the institutes' was founded, 
and a former assistant of Pestalozzi became tutor to the 



i6o GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

royal princes, but probably nothing permanent was ac- 
complished. Schpols were also established before long in 
Italy, Denmark, and Holland by Pestalozzians, but none 
of them met with much success, and continental Europe 
in general eventually adopted the new principles in- 
directly from Germany. 
England, In England there was a tendency to combine Pes- 

where. talozzianism with the Bell-Lancaster 'monitorial'^ sys- 

tem and to adopt rather its formal methodological 
aspects than its underlying spirit. However, the Pesta- 
lozzian school of Dr. Mayo and his sister near London 
during the second quarter of the century was famous 
both for its methods and its teachers. The Mayos, 
together with a friend and admirer of Pestalozzi, named 
Greaves, and the reformer's biographer, Biber, did much 
at this time for the cause of educational reform. 
Through their efforts, with the cooperation of many 
other educators, 'The Home and Colonial Society' ^ was 
established in 1836 largely upon Pestalozzian principles, 
and a number of training schools were founded. The 
industrial training of Pestalozzi has also found a foot- 
hold in England, and in the well-known Red Hill school 
and farm for young criminals and in other institutions it 
has produced remarkable results. 

1 See pp. 237-243. 

2 See footnote on p. 229. 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT i6i 



Pestalozzianism in the United States 
Pestalozzianism began to appear in the United States in the 

United States 

as early as the first decade of the nineteenth century. Pestaiozzian- 
It was introduced, not only from the original centers m troduced by 
Switzerland, but indirectly in the form it had assumed McCi^e 
in Germany, France, England, and other countries. ^^°^|^ 
The instances of its appearance were sporadic and seem Neef; 
to have been but little connected at any time. The 
earliest presentation was that made from the treatise 
of Chavannes in 1805 by William McClure. This 
gentleman was a retired Scotch-American merchant and 
man of science, who had, upon the invitation of Na- 
poleon, gone to visit the orphanage at Paris directed by 
Joseph Neef, a former teacher at Burgdorf. Mr. 
McClure afterward spent much time at the institute in 
Yverdun, and by his writings, articles, and financial 
support did much to make the new principles known in 
the United States. In 1806 he induced Neef to come 
to America and become his ^'master's apostle in the new 
world." Neef maintained an institution at Philadelphia 
for three, years and afterward founded and taught 
schools in several parts of the country. But his imper- 
fect acquaintance with English and with American 
character and his frequent migrations prevented his ' 

personal influence from being greatly felt, and the two 
excellent works that he published upon applications 



i62 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



a large 
number of 
articles and 
translations 
were pub- 
lished on the 
subject; and 
applications 
were made 
by Colburn, 
Guyot, and 
Mason. 



The most in- 
fluential 
movements, 
however, 



of the Pestalozzian methods were given scant atten- 
tion.^ 

A large variety of Hterature, describing the new edu- 
cation, and translating the accounts of Chavannes, 
Jullien, Cousin, and a number of the German educa- 
tionalists, also appeared in the American educational 
and other journals during the first half of the century. 
Returned travelers, like Professor John Griscom, published 
accounts of their visits and experiences at Yverdim and 
Hofwyl, and such lecturers as the Rev. Charles Brooks 
began to suggest the new principles as a remedy for 
our educational deficiencies. The Pestalozzian methods 
were applied to arithmetic by Warren Colburn, who 
spread ' mental arithmetic ' throughout the country, 
and in his famous First Lessons even printed the 'table 
of units'; to geography by Arnold Guyot, a pupil of 
Ritter's ; to music by Lowell Mason, who was influenced 
by the works of Nageli; and to various other subjects 
by a number of educators. Bronson Alcott and his 
brother urged and practiced the principles of Pestalozzi 
in their schools, and David P. Page, as principal of the 
New York State Normal School, utiHzed the spirit and 
many of the methods of the Swiss reformer. 

The most influential propaganda of the Pestalozzian 
doctrines in the United States, however, came through 
the account of the German school methods in the Seventh 



1 For a further account of Neef's work, see Education, Vol. XIV, pp. 
449-461. 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 163 
Annual Report (1843) of Horace Mann, and through the were brought 

about by 

inauguration of the ' Oswego methods ' by Dr. Edward A. Horace 
Sheldon. Mann spoke nmost enthusiastically of the sue- seventh An- 
cess of the Prussian-Pestalozzian system of education ^^^^^^^°^^ 
and hinted at the need of a radical reform along the 
same lines in America. The report caused a great sen- 
sation, and was bitterly combated by a group of thirty- 
one Boston schoolmasters and by conservative sentiment 
throughout the country. Nevertheless, the suggested 
reforms were largely effected, and were carried much 
further by the successors of Mann in the secretaryship 
of the Massachusetts State Board of Education.^ 

Dr. Sheldon, on the other hand, caught his Pesta- and by 
lozzian inspiration from Toronto, Canada, where he 'Oswego 
became acquainted with the Mayo methods through 
publications of the Home and Colonial Society. He 
resolved to introduce the principles of Pestalozzi into 
the Oswego schools, of which he was at that time super- 
intendent, and in 1861 sent to the Society in London 
for an experienced Pestalozzian to train his teachers in 
these methods. After a year and a half of the experi- 
ment, a committee of distinguished educators, who had 
been invited to inspect the work, pronounced the Oswego 
movement an unqualified success. Superintendent Shel- 
don had from the first admitted a few teachers from 
outside to learn the new methods, and in 1865 the 
Oswego training school was made a state institution. 
^ See pp. 260 f. 



methods. 



1 64 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Pestalozzi's 
industrial 
education 
was intro- 
duced by 
Woodbridge 
and Miss 
Carpenter, 
and by the 
institution 
of special 
types of 
colleges and 
schools. 



Thus was established the first normal school in the 
United States, where object lessons were the chief feature, 
and where classes were conducted by model teachers 
and practice, teaching afforded under the supervision of 
critic teachers. The excellent teachers graduated from 
this institution caused the Oswego methods to be widely 
known throughout the country. A large number of 
other normal schools upon the same basis sprang up 
rapidly in many states, and the Oswego methods crept 
into the training schools and the public system of numer- 
ous cities. As a consequence, during the third quarter 
of the nineteenth century, Pestalozzianism had a pre- 
vailing influence upon the teachers and courses of the 
elementary schools in the United States. 

The industrial phases of Pestalozzi's and Fellenberg's 
work_, however, were slower in coming into the United 
States than into most of the European countries. They 
were given publicity through the descriptions of William 
C. Woodbridge in the American Journal of Education 
and the American Annals of Education in 1 831-183 2, 
after his visit to Hofwyl, and through articles by others 
on the subject, and were rapidly introduced into various 
types of schools. It was not, however, until 1873, with 
the visit of Miss Mary Carpenter, the English prison 
reformer, that the 'contract labor' of the reformatories 
began to be replaced with farming, gardening, and 
kindred domestic industries. But in the second quarter 



PESTALOZZI, EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT 165 

of the nineteenth century a very large number of insti- 
tutions of secondary or higher grade with manual labor 
features, in addition to the hterary work, sprang into 
existence in the United States. The students were thus 
enabled to obtain exercise and self-support throughout 
their course. Little attention was given to the peda- 
gogical principles underlying this work, however, and as 
material conditions improved and formal social life de- 
veloped, the industrial work of most of these institutions 
was given up. Further, such schools as CarKsle, Hamp- 
ton, and Tuskegee adopted industrial training for some 
special type of education, and the work has also been 
largely used in the education of defectives. Within the 
last decade there has been a growing tendency to 
lemploy industrial training for the sake of holding pupils 
longer in school and increasing the efficiency of the pub- 
lic system. In so far as this has tended to replace the 
more general educational values of manual training, once 
^o popular, with skill in some special industrial process, 
this modern movement represents a return to Pestalozzi. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING^ 

I. Sources 

^EEF, F. J. N. Sketch of a Plan and Method of Education and 
The Method of Instructing Children Rationally in the Arts of 
Reading and Writing. 

^ For a more complete bibliography of Pestalozzian literature, see 
Barnard, Pestalozzi and his Educational Systertt, pp. 167-184. 



i66 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

*Pestalozzi, J. H. The Evening Hour of a Hermit, Letters on 
Early Education,^ Leonard and Gertrude, and How Gertrude 
Teaches Her Children. 

II. Authorities 

Bachman, F. p. The Social Factor in Pestalozzi's Theory of 

Education {Education, Vol. XXII, pp. 402-414). 
*GuiMPS, R. DE. Pestalozzi, His Aim and Work. (Translated 

by Crombie.) 
Hamilton, C. J. Henri Pestalozzi {Educational Review, Vol. Ill, 

pp. 173-184). 
Herisson, F. Pestalozzi, 6leve de J. J. Rousseau. 
*HoLMAN, H. Pestalozzi. 
HoYT, C. O. Studies in the History of Modern Education. Chap. 

III. 
Kellogg, A. M. Life of Pestalozzi. 
*Krusi, H. Pestalozzi, His Life, Work, and Influence. \ 

MiSAWA, T. Modern Educators and Their Ideals. Chap. VI. 
Monroe, W. S. Joseph Neef and Pestalozzianism in the United 

States {Education, Vol. XIV, pp. 449-461). 
More, H. Zur Biographic Pestalozzi' s^ 
Mtjnroe, J. P. The Educational Ideal. Pp. 179-187. 
Payne, J. Lectures on the History of Education. Lect. IX. 
*Pinloche, a. Pestalozzi and the Foundation of the Modern EI& 

mentary School. 
*QuiCK, R. H. Educational Reformers. Pp. 354-383. 
Sheldon, E. A. The Oswego Movement. 

1 A series of letters written in 181 8-1820 to J. P. Greaves, an Englii 
man who had taught at Yverdun for a time and then returned home. 






CHAPTER X 

HERBART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 

A MOST elaborate development of Pestalozzi's prin- Herbartde- 
ciples was that introduced by Herbart. This great Pestaiozzi's 
educationalist was first inspired by the Swiss reformer, eiaWtdy, 
but his careful training and his keen philosophical in- th^^ttacher^ 
sight caused him to work out more clearly and definitely ^^^ method. 
the 'observation' and the pedagogical devices of his 
homely master until they formed a well-rounded system. 
He stressed the educational process from the stand- 
point of the teacher, and paid the most minute atten- 
tion to method. He is the first example of the philos- 
opher and psychologist in education. His contemporary, 
Froebel, was an immediate pupil and colleague of Pes- 
talozzi, and probably owed more to his influence. He, 
however, lacked the complete philosophic insight and 
training of Herbart, and never became quite as clear and 
systematic, or paid such minute attention to method. 

The Early Career and Writings of Herbart 

Johann Friedrich Herbart (i 776-1841) both by birth Herbart's 
and education possessed a remarkable mind and was were aU in- 
well calculated to become a profound educational and^^Hie 
philosopher. All his traditions v/ere intellectual. His stuimthe 

167 



i68 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

gymnasium patcmal grandfather was rector of the gynuiasium at 
sityhe Oldenburg, Herbart's native town, and his father was 

diSn^ished 2. lawyer and privy councilor there. Moreover, the 
himself. mother of Herbart is known to have been ^a rare and 
wonderful woman,' who was able to assist her son in 
his Greek and mathematics, and, to do much toward 
directing his education. While still a youth in the 
gymnasium, Herbart showed that he himself possessed 
that 'many-sided and balanced interest' he afterward 
commended, and soon distinguished himself by writing 
essays upon moral freedom and other metaphysical 
subjects. At the University of Jena, under the inspira- 
tion of Fichte, he produced incisive critiques upon the 
treatises of that philosopher and of the other great 
idealist of the age, Schelling, and began to work out his 
own system of thought. Just before graduation, how- 
Asa private ever, Herbart left the university to become private tutor 
tainedhis ' to the three sons of Herr von Steiger-Reggisberg, Gov- 
exieriencein^ cmor of Intcrlakeu, Switzerland. During the two years 
pedagogy. (i 797-1 799) that he occupicd this position, he obtained 
his only real practical experience in pedagogy. He was 
required by his patron to make bi-monthly a written re- 
port of the methods he used and of his pupils' progress 
in their studies and conduct. Five of these letters are 
still extant, and reveal the germs of the elaborate system 
that was afterward to bear the name of Herbart. The 
youthful pedagogue seems thus early to have based his 



HERBART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 169 

methods of training upon psychology. He showed a due 
regard for the respective ages and individuahties of his 
pupils, and undertook to develop in them the elements 
of morahty and a 'many-sided interest.' 

While in Switzerland, Herbart met Pestalozzi and Having met 

was greatly attracted by the underlying principles of Burgdorf, 

that reformer. He paid a visit to the institute at Burg- tookto^Siter- 

dorf in 1799, and during the next two years, while at reSi^e^j.^s 

Bremen completing his interrupted university course, principles in 

^ ^ "^ two essays. 

he attempted to render more scientific the thought of 
the Swiss educator. It was at this time that Herbart 
wrote a critical, but kindly, essay On Pestalozzi' s Latest 
Writing, 'How Gertrude Teaches Her Children,'' ^ and 
made his interpretation of Pestalozzi' s Idea of an ABC 
of Observation!^ In the former work, Herbart gives an 
account of the aim and methods of Pestalozzi and shows 
the development of his own ideas from Pestalozzianism. 
The latter treatise describes the value, cultivation, and 
use of observation, and attempts to found the method 
of Pestalozzi upon a definite mathematical theory. 

His Moral Revelation of the World and His 
General Pedagogy 

Following this period, from 1802 to 1809, Herbart lee- While lectur- 
tured ^ on pedagogy at the University of Gottingen. gen, Herbart 

^ Ueher Pestalozzi' s neueste Schrift : Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder lehrte. 

2 Pestalozzi' s Idee eines A B C der Anschauung. 

^ His position was at first that of a Privatdocent. See p. 68, footnote 2. 



lyo GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

further in- While here, among other pedagogical works, he formu- 
p^estebzzi, lated his final position On the Point of View in Judging 
own Mom/ ^^ ^^^ Pestalozzian Method of Instruction,^ and published 
Revdation j^jg ideas On the Moral Revelation of the World as 

of the World -' 

and his work the Chief Function of Education.'^ By this time he 

on General 

Pedagogy. seems to have largely crystallized his own system. 
Pestalozzi had by his later works made evident the 
faults in his methods, and Herbart no longer strives 
to conceal their vagueness and want of system. In 
both of the Gottingen treatises he further insists upon 
'educative instruction,' or real ethical training. Sense 
perception, he holds with Pestalozzi, does supply the 
first elements of knowledge, but the material of the 
school course should be arranged with reference to 
the general purpose of instruction, which is moral 
self-realization. 2 His position was made even clearer 
in his standard work on General Pedagogy,^ which he 
produced shortly afterward. 

* Ueher den Standpunkt der Beurtheilung der Pestalozzischen Unter- 
richtsmethode. 

2 Ueher die dsthetische Darstellung der Welt ah Hauptgeschdft der Erzie- 
hung. With Herbart, ethics is the main branch of 'aesthetics,' and deals 
with such relations among volitions as please or displease. This work 
was originally intended as an appendix to the second edition of his 
Pestalozzi's Idea of an A B C of Sense Observation, but it proved 
to be a forerunner of his General Pedagogy. It contains in outline 
all the positions systematically developed in the more elaborate 
treatise. 

' Allgemeine Pddagogik. 



HERB ART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 171 



His Seminary and Practice School at Konigsberg 

In 1809 Herbart was called to the chair of philosophy As Kant's 

at Konigsberg as practically the successor of the illus- K5n5berg, 

trious Immanuel Kant/ and there did his great work hfsllmius^"^ 

for educational theory and practice. He soon estab- pedagogical 

seminary and 

lished his now historic pedagogical seminary and the practice 

. . school, and 

practice school connected with it. This constituted the wrote chiefly 
first attempt at experimentation and a scientific study ogy^^^^ ° 
of education on the basis now generally employed in 
universities. The students, who taught in the practice 
school under the supervision and criticism of the pro- 
fessor, were intending to become school principals and 
inspectors, and, through the widespread work and 
influence of these young Herbartians, the educational 
system of Prussia and of every other state in Germany 
was greatly advanced. In his numerous publications 
at Konigsberg, Herbart devoted himself chiefly to de- 
veloping a series of works on his system of psychology, 
but he also wrote a number of essays and letters upon 
education. The conservatism and opposition to free 
inquiry in Prussia, however, eventually became too 
restrictive for a man of Herbart's progressive tempera- 
ment. 

* Kant died in 1804, and was succeeded by Wilhelm Traugott Krug, 
who resigned in 1809 to accept the chair at Leipzig. 



172 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



The Matured System in His Outlines 



Late in life, 
he returned 
to Gottingen, 
and pub- 
lished his 
Outlines of 
Pedagogical 
Lectures and 
his Outlines 
of General 
Pedagogy. 



After serving nearly a quarter of a century in Konigs- 
berg, he accepted a call to a professorship at Gottingen, 
and the last eight years of his life were spent in expand- 
ing his pedagogical positions and lecturing with great 
approval at his old station. Here, in 1835, he pubhshed 
his Outlines of Pedagogical Lectures,^ in which six years 
later he embodied his Outlines of General Pedagogy? 
This treatise gives an exposition of his educational sys- 
tem when fully matured, together with its relation to 
psychology. The work proved to be his swan's song, 
for, shortly after the new edition appeared, Herbart died 
at the height of his reputation.^ 



Some knowl- 
edge of Her- 
bart's psy- 
chology is 
necessary, in 
order to un- 
derstand his 
educational 
principles. 



Herbart's * Ideas' and * Apperception Masses' 

To understand the educational principles of Herbart, 
it is necessary to know something of his psychology 
and of the metaphysics lying back of it. With the 
possible exception of Kant's educational theories, Her- 
bart's was the first real system of education that was 

* Umriss pddagogischer Vorlesungen. 

2 Umriss der allgemeinen Pddagogik. 

' His complete works were not published until 1850, when Hartenstein, 
collected them. The most satisfactory collection at present is that found 
in the seventh edition of Bartholomai, revised by von Sallwiirk (Langen- 
salza, 1903)-. 



HERB ART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 173 

based upon a psychology worked out by the founder. 
His psychological positions have now been almost en- 
tirely abandoned or reconstructed, but the idea of 
founding education upon psychology has been produc- 
tive of a marked advance in educational theory. This 
system of psychology was an outgrowth of his own 
introspection. With Herbart, the simplest elements of 
consciousness are ^ ideas/ which result from the vary- 
ing states into which the soul is thrown in endeavoring 
to maintain itself against external stimuli. Once pro- 
duced, the ideas become existences with their own 
dynamic force, and constantly strive to preserve them- 
selves.^ They struggle to attain as nearly as possible 
to the summit of consciousness, and each idea tends 
to* draw into consciousness or heighten those allied to 
it, and to depress or force out those which are unlike. 
Hence in the constant interaction between ideas present 

1 This psychology is part of a pluralistic metaphysics somewhat re- 
sembling the doctrine of 'ideas' in Plato or Kant's 'Dinge an sich/ 
and even more the 'monadology' of Leibnitz. Herbart assumes an 
unseen universe, composed of 'units' called 'reals,' which are unchange- 
able and constitute the 'noumena' of which our experiences are the 'phe- 
nomena.' His 'reals,' however, are mere existences, and, unlike the 
'monads,' do not possess activity of any sort, save that of ' self-preserva- 
tion ' against annihilation. The soul is simply a species of superior 'real.' 
Its sole function in psychology seems to be that of producing the ideas or 
mind atoms in reaction to the outside world, for once the ideas are born 
they go on by their own laws, and the parent 'soul' plays no further part 
in their life. 



174 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



'Similar' 
ideas fuse, 
'disparate' 
ideas com- 
bine, and 
'contrary' 
ideas repel ; 



hence we 
have 'apper- 
ception,' or 
the inter- 
pretation of 
all new ideas 
through 



at the same time in consciousness, 'similar' ideas 
fuse or combine into a homogeneous whole, and be- 
come more powerful in resisting all efforts to drive 
them out of consciousness; 'disparate' ideas, or those 
which cannot be compared, also combine, but form a 
complex or group rather than an indistinguishable 
unity; while 'contrary,' or hostile ideas, produce actual 
opposition, and each attempts to drive the other out of 
consciousness. For example, 'sweetness' and 'white- 
ness' would be 'disparate' ideas, since they are not 
of the same class and might coexist in our idea of an 
object, but 'whiteness' and 'blackness' are so 'con- 
trary' that one would necessarily contradict the other. 
Each new idea or group of ideas is, therefore, re- 
tained, modified, or rejected according to its degree 
of harmony or conflict with the previously existing 
ideas. ^ In other words, all new ideas are interpreted 
through those already in consciousness. This principle, 
which Herbart called apperception, is the central doctrine 
in his whole educational system, and he constantly 
returns to it from many different angles. In accord- 
ance with 'apperception' the teacher can hope to 

1 Herbart here develops a complete mechanics of ideas. On the anal- 
ogy of psychical tensions to physical forces, he works out a system of 
mental statics and dynamics that may be quantitatively determined. 
Mental action and reaction are set forth in mathematical equations ; the 
involution and evolution of thought are expressed numerically, and ideas 
are arranged in a series. 



HERB ART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 175 

secure interest and the attention of the pupil to any those already 
new idea or set of ideas and have him retain it, only n^ess°^^^^^^^" 
through making use of his body of related knowledge. 
The educational problem thus becomes how to present 
new material in such a way that it can be ' apperceived/ 
or incorporated with the old. Hence, too, the soul of 
the pupil is largely in the hands of the teacher, since 
he can make or modify his 'apperception masses/ or 
systems of ideas. 

The Moral and Religious Aim of Education 

It is probably because of this control of the pupiFs The aim of 

destiny by his instructors that Herbart holds the aim attdnmenr 

of education should be to estabHsh the moral life or o^^^^racter. 
character. His Outlines opens with the statement: — 

"The term Virtue' expresses the whole purpose of education. 
Virtue is the idea of 'inner freedom,' which has developed into an 
abiding actuality in an individual. Whence, as inner freedom is 
a relation between 'insight' and 'volition,' a double task is at 
once set before the teacher. It becomes his business to make 
actual each one of these factors separately, in order that later a 
permanent relationship may result." 

In other words, virtue is attained by the pupil when Besides 

his perception of what is right and wrong is in com- dom,'orthe 

plete accord with his deeds, and the aim of education tionTf"con- 

should, therefore, be to instil such ideas as will develop ?.^^^ ^^} 

both his understanding of the moral order and a con- Herbart 



176 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



formulates 
the moral 
concepts of 
'efficiency of 
will,' 'good 
will,' 'jus- 
tice,' and 
'equity.' 



Morality and 
religion are 
both needed. 



scientious spirit in carrying it out. "To induce the 
pupil to make this effort/' Herbart admits, "is a diflS- 
cult achievement. It is easy enough, by the study of 
the example of others, to cultivate theoretical acumen; 
the moral application to the pupil himself, however, 
can be successfully made only in so far as his inclina- 
tions and habits have taken a direction in keeping with 
his insight." To make clearer the meaning of this 
'inner freedom' and the ethical aim, Herbart formulates 
four subsidiary moral concepts, which make up the ele- 
ments of character and must be understood by the 
teacher. These are 'efficiency of will,' which includes 
positiveness of purpose, vigor in action, and harmony 
with the ethical order of the world; 'good will,' or 
recognition of the welfare of others as if it were one's 
own; 'justice,' the idea of rights, which demands 
abstinence from contention; and 'equity,' which arises 
when existing relations are changed for good or evil, 
and is the basis of society's systems of punishments or 
rewards. These five fundamental concepts should from 
the first be incorporated into the pupil's stock of ideas. 
But even the attainment of moral living is not suf- 
ficient. Herbart declares : — 



"It is necessary to combine moral education proper, which in 
everyday life lays stress continually on correct self-determination, 
with religious training. The notion that something really worthy 
has been achieved, needs to be tempered by humility. Conversely, 



HERB ART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 177 

religious education has need of the moral also to forestall cant 
and hypocrisy, which are only too apt to appear where morality 
has not already secured a firm foothold through earnest self- 
questioning and self-criticism with a view to improvement." 



* Many-Side d Interest* and the * Historical' and 
* Scientific' Studies 

The making of the morally religious man is, therefore, 
Herbart's idea of the end of education. His ultimate 
aim must, however, be attained through instruction, 
and since that medium has to deal with the human 
mind, the more immediate purpose must be based upon 
psychology, just as the final goal is dependent upon 
ethics. It is obvious to Herbart that existing instruc- 
tion has not succeeded, because it is based upon a 
false psychological theory. He maintains that ^'what 
is customarily ascribed to the action of the various 
* faculties' takes place in certain groups of ideas." ^ 
Even 'will,' upon which man's character rests, is not 
to be regarded as an 'independent faculty.' ''Volition 
has its root in thought," he claims, "not, indeed, in the 
details one knows, but certainly in the combination and 

1 From the nature of Herbart's psychology, the soul or self cannot, as 
with Leibnitz or Kant, be an original synthetic activity, which forms expe- 
rience. It cannot be possessed of innate po^^-ers or 'faculties,' as sup- 
posed by those who would treat the chief types of mental states as real 
forces, but consists merely of the aggregate of ideas and their combina- 
tions. 

N 



178 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

To produce total effect of the acquired ideas." A careful study 

reilgi^T^ ^ must, accordingly, be made of each pupil's thought 

Sudy must niasscs, temperament, and mental capacity and processes, 

be made of ^q determine how instruction may furnish a 'moral 

his thought •' 

systems, and revclation of the world/ In Herbart's judgment : — 

such studies 

as will appeal ... . . - ... 

to them and Instruction m the sense of mere information-giving contains 

furnish a ^o guarantee whatever that it will materially counteract faults 
'moral reve- , . ^ . . , . 1 , . , , , , 

lation of the and influence existing groups of ideas that are independent of the 

world ' must imparted information. But it is these ideas that education must 
be given him, , ^ , , . , t ^ • 1 • 

reach ; for the kind and extent of assistance that instruction may 

render to conduct may depend upon the hold it has upon them." 

There is not much likelihood of the pupil's receiving 
ideas of virtue that will develop into glowing ideals of 
conduct when his studies do not appeal to his thought 
systems and are consequently regarded with indifference 
and aversion. They must coalesce with the ideas he 
already has, and thus touch his life, if interest is to be 
felt and will aroused. Instruction must be so selected 
and arranged as to appeal to the previous experience of 
the pupil, and to reveal all the relations of life and con- 
duct in their fullness. To expand the mental horizon and 
open every avenue of approach to his ideas, interests, 
and will, it is necessary that the pupil should be given 
as broad instruction as possible. In this way only can 
a wide range of ideas be furnished and the necessary 
'many-sided interest' created. In analyzing the 'many- 
sided interest,' Herbart further holds that ideas and 



HERB ART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 179 

interests spring from two main sources, — ^experience/ There is 
which furnishes us with a knowledge of nature, and 'many-sided 
^social intercourse,' from which come the sentiments 
toward our fellow men. Interests may, therefore, be 
classed as belonging to (i) 'knowledge' or (2) 'partici- This will in- 

rr^i <• • • TT 1 V elude inter- 

pation. These two sets of mterests, m turn, Herbart estsof (i) 

divides into three groups each. He classes the 'knowl- ^hi^hare^^' 

edge' interests as (a) 'empirical,' appealing directly to ^^^^^ca/P 

the senses; (b) 'speculative,' seeking to perceive the 'speculative, 

relations of cause and effect; and (c) 'aesthetic,' resting thetic/and 

, . mi ( • • of (2) 'par- 

upon the enjoyment of contemplation. The participa- tidpation/ 
tion' interests are divided into (a) 'sympathetic,' dealing divided^into 
with relations to other individuals ; (b) 'social,' including ^heS^^' 
the community as a whole; and (c) 'religious,' treating ^sodai.'and 
one's relations to the Divine. After making this analysis 
of the six types of interest that are needed, he also dilates 
upon the dangers of one-sidedness in each case, and en- 
deavors to "bring out more clearly the manifold phases 
of interest that must be taken into account." 

For Herbart, then, just as religious morality is the final 
aim of education, the more immediate purpose of instruc- 
tion is many-sided interest. "Instruction," he declares, 
"will form the circle of thought, and education the char- 
acter. The last is nothing without the first. Herein 
is contained the whole sum of my pedagogy." Since 
character is thus to develop through the medium of in- 
struction and the growth of concrete knowledge, which 



i8o GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Correspond- 
ing to the 
two groups 
of interests, 
studies are 
divided into 
(i) 'histori- 
cal,' includ- 
ing history, 
literature, 
and lan- 
guages, and 
(2) 'scien- 
tific,' em- 
bracing sci- 
ences, mathe- 
matics, and 
industrial 
training. 

But while 
many-sided- 
ness is de- 
sirable, all 
studies must 
be unified 
and scatter- 
ing avoided. 



should be as broad as possible, the subject-matter of the 
curriculum should cover the entire range of known ideas. 
Hence, to correspond to the two main groups of interests, 
Herbart divides all studies into two main branches, — 
the (i) * historical,' including history, literature, and lan- 
guages; and the (2) 'scientific,' embracing mathematics 
and industrial training, as well as the natural sciences. 
But, while all these subjects are needed for a 'many-sided 
interest ' and the various studies have for convenience 
been separated and classified by themselves, they must 
be so arranged in the curriculum as to become unified and 
an organic whole, if the unity of the pupil's consciousness 
is to be maintained. Concerning this Herbart holds : — 

"j Scattering no less than one-sidedness forms an antithesis to 
many-sidedness. Many-sidedness is to be the basis of virtue ; 
but the latter is an attribute of personality, hence it is evident 
that the unity of self- consciousness must not be impaired. The 
business of instruction is to form the person on many sides, and 
accordingly to avoid a distracting or dissipating effect. And in- 
struction has successfully avoided this in the case of one who 
with ease surveys his well-arranged knowledge in all of its unify- 
ing relations and beholds it together as his very own." 



Hence the 
Herbartians 
later formu- 
lated 'corre- 
lation' and 
* concentra- 



* Correlation,' * Concentration,* and the * Culture Epochs' 

This position of Herbart forecasts the emphasis upon 
correlation, or the unification of studies, so common 
among his followers. The principle was further de- 
veloped by later Herbartians under the name of concen- 



HERBART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE i8i 

tration, or the unifying of all subjects about one common tion,' and the 
central study, such as literature or history. But the epoch 
selection and articulation of the subject-matter in such a ^ ^^' 
way as to arouse many-sidedness and harmony is not 
more than hinted at by Herbart himself. He specifically 
holds, however, that Homer's Odyssey should be the 
first work read, since this represents the interests and 
activities of the race while in its youth, and would appeal 
to the individual during the same stage. He would 
follow this epic with the Iliad, the Philoctetes of Sopho- 
cles, the histories of Xenophon, Plato's dialogues, and 
other classics, in the order of the growing complexity 
of racial interests depicted in them.^ This tentative 
endeavor of Herbart, in the selection of material for the 
course of study, to parallel the development of the in- 
dividual with that of the race, was also continued and 
enlarged by the disciples of Herbart. It especially 
became definite and fixed in the culture epoch theory 
formulated by Ziller and others.^ 

'Absorption and Reflection' and the 'Formal Steps 
of Instruction' 

But to secure this broad range of material and to unify 
and systematize it, Herbart realized that it was necessary 

* Herbart's attitude on the development of interests in the race is most 
fully brought out in his General Pedagogy, Introduction and Chapter V, 
I (see Felkin's translation, Science of Education, pp. 91 and 164 ff.). 

2 See p. 188. 



i82 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

In the edu- to formulate a method of instructing the child. Due 

process Her- Sequence and order must be introduced to shape the 

tingutshed material into a well-arranged structure. This plan of 

between instruction he wished to conform to the development and 

absorption, ^ 

the acquisi- working of the human mind, and in this connection in- 

tion of facts, 

and 'reflec- troduced his distinction between absorption and reflection} 
assimilation This twofold mental process is necessary in grasping all 
thus^gained; ^^^ knowledge, and the alternation between the two 
steps has sometimes been described as the 'breathing' 
of the mind. 'Absorption' is giving oneself up to ac- 
quisition or contemplation of facts or ideas, and 'reflec- 
tion' is the unification or assimilation of the manifold 
knowledge gained by absorption. As these two stages 
are mutually exclusive, the pupil passes in psychical 
development from one to the other. On the basis of 
this description of mental activity and growth, Herbart 
worked out the outlines of his logical method in instruc- 
tion, which he states as follows : — 

"We prescribe the general rule: give equal prominence to 
absorption and reflection in every group of objects, even the 
smallest ; that is to say, emphasize equally clearness of the indi- 
vidual perception, association of the manifold, coordination of the 
associated, and progress through exercise according to this co- 
ordination." 

and formu- Of the four steps indicated in this method, (i) clear- 
steps in his ^"^ /^e^^, the presentation of facts or elements to be learned, 

1 See Outlines, § 66, and General Pedagogy, Bk. II, Chap. I, § i. 



HERBART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 183 

is purely 'absorption'; (2) association, the uniting of method of 

these with related facts previously acquired, is mainly _'ciear°^' 

'absorption/ but contains elements of 'reflection'; (3) ^rtion^^^°' 

system, the coherent and logical arrangement of what 'system,' 

has been associated, is non-progressive or passive 'reflec- 'method,' 

which have 

tion'; and (4) method, the practical application of the beenex^ 
system by the pupil to new data, is progressive or active modified by 
'reflection.' The formulation of this method was made bartSns' 
only in principle by Herbart, but it has since been largely 
modified and developed by his followers. It was soon 
felt that, on the principle of 'apperception,' the pupil 
must first be made conscious of his existing stock of ideas 
so far as they are similar to the material to be presented, 
and that this can be accomplished by a review of preced- 
ing lessons or by an outline of what is to be undertaken, 
or by both procedures. Hence Herbart 's noted disciple, 
Ziller, divided the step of 'clearness' into preparation 
and presentation, and the more recent Herbartian, Rein, 
added aim as a substep to 'preparation.' The names of 
the other three processes have been changed for the sake 
of greater lucidity and significance by the later Herbar- 
tians, and the fiYe formal {i.e. 'rational') steps of instruc- 
tion ^ are now generally given as (i) preparation, (2) pres- 
entation, (3) comparison and abstraction, (4) generali- 
zation, and (5) application? Herbart also made numer- 

^ Dieformalen Stufen des Unterrichts. 

2 Cf. McMurry's Method of the Recitation. 



184 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

ous other suggestive analyses and interpretations of the 
mechanics of instruction.^ 

* Government ' and 'Training* in Discipline 

Indiscipline As a corollary of his improvements in method, Her- 

makes re- bart's ideas concerning discipline are important and well 

'govern- worthy of consideration. While he admits the need of 

ment'a ^government/ which is repressive, he sharply distin- 

prehminary ^ ' x- 7 1. j 

to 'training' guishes this from draining,' or real moral education, for 

or real moral 

education. which the former is intended to prepare. The purpose 
of government is to hold the pupils in order and subser- 
vient to the will of the teacher until moral habits are 
formed. It should keep them properly occupied and 
supervised, and should issue prohibitions and commands, 
rewards and punishments. But an irreparable moral 
injury is wrought if pupils are forever governed and never 
trained. ^'The function of training," says Herbart, 
*'does not consist in always restraining and meddling; 
still less, in grafting the practices of others to take the 
place of the pupil's self-activity." Training shapes the 
will for self-control, as cannot be done by constant re- 
pression or emotional appeals. Aid and sympathy from 
the teacher are correlated with confidence and dependence 
upon the part of the pupil. Training is thus the parent 
of voluntary cooperation, and should be the ultimate 

1 Such, for example, as his discussion of the educational process under 
three phases, — presentative, analytic, and synthetic. 



HERBART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 185 

aim of schoolroom discipline. It unites with ^educative 
instruction' to form character. 

The Value and Influence of Herbart's Principles 

On all sides, then, as compared with Pestalozzi, Her- Herbart 

bart was most logical and comprehensive. The former ^p^sychoio-^ 

was primarily a philanthropist and reformer ; the latter ftm^fion". 

a psychologist and philosopher. Pestalozzi succeeded and the be- 
ginning with 

in arousing Europe to the need of universal education sense percep- 

,«.,.. ., . - tion of Pesta- 

and of vitahzmg the prevailmg formalism in the schools, lozzi, through 

but he was unable with his vague and unsystematic systeJf of 

utterances to give guidance and efficiency to the reform anShe^^n- 

forces he had initiated. While he felt the need of 'psy- cip^eof/ap- 

^ -^ perception, 

chologizing instruction' and of beginning with sense per- and made all 

ception for the sake of clear ideas, he had neither the time moral de- 

... T T t , 1 velopment. 

nor the trainmg to construct a psychology beyond the 
traditional one of the times, nor to analyze the way the 
material gained by observation could be assimilated. 
Herbart, on the other hand, did create a system of psy-- 
chology that had an immediate bearing upon education. 
He showed how the product of observation was assim- 
ilated through 'apperception,' and maintained the pos- 

sibiKty of making all material tend toward moral develop- jjg ^^^^^ 

ment through 'educative instruction.' This, he held, P^staiozzi's 

° ^ ' emphasis 

could be accomplished by use of the proper courses and "pon the 

^ ^ ^ ^ physical 

methods. In determining the subjects to be selected and world a 

articulated, he considered Pestalozzi's emphasis upon the stone, and 



i86 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



stressed his- 
tory, lan- 
guages, and 
literature, 
rather than 
arithmetic 
and the 
natural sci- 
ences. 



While Her- 
bart's prin- 
ciples have 
tended 
toward 
formaliza- 
tion, they 
have stimu- 
ated most 
fruitful work 
in psychology 
and educa- 
tion. 



study of the physical world to be merely a stepping- 
stone to his own 'moral revelation of the world/ and, 
while the former made arithmetic, geography, and natural 
sciences his chief care, he preferred to stress history, lan- 
guages, and literature. He also first undertook a careful 
analysis of the successive steps in all instruction. 

On the other hand, a great drawback to the Herbar- 
tian doctrines is found in their formalization. But while 
Herbart^s psychological system is most mechanical and 
applies better to the process of instruction than to the 
human being in general, it has started all the fruitful 
research in psycho-physics, and has worked well as a 
basis for educational theory and practice. There has 
been considerable danger, too, that the attempt of Her- 
bart to bring about due sequence and arrangement in 
instruction would become perverted through his disciples 
into an inflexible schema, but it has, upon the whole, 
done much to introduce system and order into the work 
of the classroom. As we shall see, where Froebel under- 
took to explain Pestalozzi's rather vague conceptions of 
following the nature of the child by elaborating it on 
the volitional side, Herbart renders it more explicit by 
an intellectual interpretation.^ While FroebeFs empha- 



1 Similarly, the brainy priest, Antonio Rosmini-Serhati (1797-1855), in 
The Ruling Principle of Method, while combining Froebel's development 
with the 'apperception' of Herbart, strives primarily to interpret Pesta- 
lozzi from the emotional standpoint. 



HERBART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 187 

sis was upon the child and self-activity, Herbart magni- 
fied instruction and the teacher. Therein rest both his 
strength and weakness and in these formulations of his 
is indicated how differently from the mystic founder of 
the kindergarten he had developed the naive practice 
and formulations of Pestalozzi. 

The Extension of His Doctrines through Disciples 
in Germany 

The theoretical foimdations of Herbart, however, were His work was 
laid mostly in outline. He himself had but little experi- his^cSs-^ ^ 
ence in teaching and had no opportimity to work out his "^ ^^' ~ 
principles in the schoolroom. His early disciples, how- 
ever, were able to fill in and extend his work. They 
reduced his theories to practice and applied them to the 
content and methods of the elementary and secondary 
systems of Germany. From practically the beginning 
there were two contemporary schools of Herbartianism. 
In its application of Herbart's theory, the school of Stoy stoy, who 
for the most part held closely to the original form ; but original lit- 
that headed by Ziller gave it a freer interpretation, and zmer'who 
contributed some important modifications and elabo- interpreted 

more freely 

rations. Karl Volkmar Stoy had been a student under and elabo- 
rated ; 
Herbart after that philosopher's return to Gottingen. 

He became a professor at Jena, and established there a 

pedagogical seminary and practice school upon the Her- 

bartian basis. His Encyclopaedia of Pedagogics and 



i88 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

numerous other educational works were mainly a force- 
ful restatement of Herbart's positions. Tuiskon Ziller, 
both as a teacher in a gymnasium and as professor at 
Leipzig, did much to popularize and develop the Her- 
bartian system. His great work, The Basis of the Doc- 
trine of Educative Instruction,^ brought Herbartianism 
into prominence, and resulted in the formation of the 
society known as the 'Association for the Scientific 
Study of Education,' ^ which has since spread through- 
out Germany. Ziller further emphasized Herbart's 
division of the curriculum into two groups of studies, 
and made clear the subordination of the 'scientific' 
studies to the 'historical.' He also elaborated the doc- 
trines of 'correlation' and 'concentration,' and was the 
first definitely to formulate the 'culture epoch' theory. 
"Every pupil should," said he, "pass successively through 
each of the chief epochs of the general mental develop- 
ment of mankind suitable to his stage of development. 
The material of instruction, therefore, should be drawn 
from the thought material of that stage of historical de- 
velopment in culture, which runs parallel with the present 
mental stage of the pupil." ^ These principles Ziller 
worked out practically in a course of study for the eight 

1 Grundlegung zur Lehre vom erziehenden TJnterricht. 

2 Verein fiir Wissenschaftliche Pddagogik. 

3 See Felkin's Introduction to Herbart's Science and Practice of Educa- 
tion, p. 122. 



HERBART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 189 

years of the elementary school, which he centered around 
fairy tales, Robinson Crusoe, and selections from the 
Old and New Testaments. He, moreover, developed 
Herbart's ^formal stages of instruction' by dividing 
the first step and changing the name of the last. 

Other Germans to influence Herbartianism have been Lange, who 
Lange, Rein, and Frick. Karl Lange's Apperception is learning to 
an excellent combination of scientific insight and popular ^^^^^^^^ 
presentation. It treats the various problems of educa- 
tion on the basis that '^all learning is apperceiving." He 
agrees in general with the Herbartian method, but warns 
against its mechanics and formalism. Wilhelm Rein, Rein, who 
a pupil of both Stoy and Ziller, succeeded the former at later devei- 
Jena, but is closer to the latter in his interpretation of HCTb^rtian- 
Herbart. His Outlines of Pedagogy ^ shows the develop- ^^™' 
ment that has taken place since the time of Herbart. 
He adopts Ziller 's ^ concentration ' and ^culture epochs,' 
but makes these theories more rational by coordinating 
other material with the 'historical' center in the curricu- 
lum. Otto Frick, director of the ^Francke Institutions' Frick, who 
at Halle, ^ inclining more to the literal interpretation of bartianism 
Stoy, devoted himself to applying Herbartianism to the aty^schods;' 
secondary schools.^ A throng of other German school- 

* Pddagogik ini Grundriss. 
2 See pp. 68 ff. 

^ An organic course for Gymnasien is outlined in the eighth number of 
the Quarterly Magazine, which he edited. 



IQO GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



and many 
others. 



masters and professors have further adapted the doc- 
trines of Herbart to the school, and while their theories 
differ very largely from one another, from their common 
basis they are all properly designated 'Herbartian/ 



In the 
United 
States the 
'National 
Herbart 
Society' has 
extended 
Herbart's 
principles by 
translating 
his works 
and publish- 
ing a Year 
Book. 



De Gar mo 

and the 
McMurrys 
have also as 
individuals 
sought to 
popularize 
his prin- 
ciples, 



Herbartianism in the United States 

Next to the land of its birth, the United States has 
been more influenced by Herbartianism than any other 
country. The movement was fostered largely by Amer- 
ican teachers who had taken the doctor's degree in Ger- 
many, and during the last decade of the nineteenth cen- 
tury it attained almost to the proportions of a cult. In 
1892 'The National Herbart Society' was founded to 
extend the scope of these principles and to adapt them 
to American conditions. The association started imme- 
diately to translate the works of Herbart and various 
German Herbartians, and since 1895 it has regularly 
published a Year Book. Besides these efforts, individual 
members of the organization have been active in dis- 
cussing Herbartian principles and their embodiment in 
our methods of instruction. Charles DeGarmo, pro- 
fessor of Education at Cornell University, who was the 
first president of the Herbart Society and the editor of 
its publications, has given wide popularity to many of 
the principles and has utilized them as the basis of his 
textbooks. Frank M. McMurry of the Columbia 
University Teachers College, and his brother, Charles 



HERBART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 191 

A. McMurry, of the Illinois State Normal University, 
both by books and articles, have done yeoman service 
for Herbartianism. 

Moreover, many who would hardly consider themselves 
Herbartians have undertaken to modify and adapt these 
principles, especially 'correlation' and 'concentration.' while many 
Francis W. Parker of Chicago, for example, sought to tianshave 
center the course of study around a hierarchy of natural Nation '^ and" 
and social sciences, and his associate, Wilbur S. Tackman, y^^^^^^^^- 

' ' J y tion m 

attempted a correlation of science and history. The modified 

forms. 

Committee of Fifteen, appointed by the National Edu- 
cation Association to report upon elementary education, 
show Herbartian influence in their discussions of 'corre- 
lation,' although they give the term a wider interpreta- 
tion. Various other types of unification about a core of 
literature, history, or nature study, or, through combi- 
nation with Froebelianism, of social activities, have been 
suggested. 

While in this way all elementary and to some extent YetHer- 
secondary schools have been affected, Herbartianism in while most 
its purity has been largely abandoned for less dogmatic JTa^'b^come 
methods. Even the Herbart Society has ceased to exist ^^^^ ^^ ^ ^ 

•^ propaganda. 

as a propaganda and has since 1901 been known as 'The 
National Society for the Scientific Study of Education.' 
Yet probably no system of pedagogy has had so wide 
an influence upon American education and upon the 
thought and practice of teachers generally. 



192 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Sources 

Bartholomai, F. Johann Friedrich Herbarts Padagogische Schrif- 
ten. (Revised by E. von Sallwiirk.) 

EcKOFF, W. J. Herharfs A B C of Sense Perception and Minor 
Pedagogical Works. 

Felkin, H. M. and E. Herbarfs Letters and Lectures on Education. 

*Felkin, H. M. and E. Herbart's Science of Education. 

*Lange, a. F., and De Garmo, C. Herbarfs Outlines of Peda- 
gogical Doctrine. 

*Lange, K. Apperception. (Translated by Herbart Club.) 

MuLLiNER, B. C. Herbart'' s Application of Psychology to the 
Science of Education. 

Smith, M. K. Herbart's Text-book in Psychology. 

Van Liew, C. C. and I. J. Rein's Outlines of Pedagogics. 

WiGET, T. Die Formalen Stufen des Unterrichts. 

11. Authorities 

*Adams, J. The Herbartian Psychology Applied to Education. 

Chap. III. 
Cole, P. R. Herbart and Froebel: an Attempt at Synthesis. 
Darroch, a. Herbart and the Herbartian Theory of Education. 

Lect. V. 
De Garmo, C. Essentials of Method. 
*De Garmo, C. German Contributions to the Coordination of 

Studies (Educational Review, Vol. IV, pp. 422-437) and A 

Working Basis for the Correlation of Studies (Educational i 

Review, Vol. V, pp. 451-466). 
*De Garmo, C. Herbart and the Herbartians. 
Felkin, H. M. and E. An Introduction to Herbart' s Science and. 

Practice of Education. 



HERBART AND EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE 193 

Gilbert, C. B. Practicable Correlations of Studies {Educational 

Review, Vol. XI, pp. 313-322). 
*Harris, W. T. Herbart and Pestalozzi Compared {Educational 

Review, Vol. V, pp. 417-423) ; Herbart' s Doctrine of Interest 

{Educational Review, Vol. X, pp. 71-81). 
Harris, W. T. The Psychological Foundations of Education. 

Chap. XXXVI. 
*Herbart Society. Year Book. Nos. I and II. 
Hughes, J. L. The Educational Theories of Froebel and Herbart 

{Educational Review, Vol. X, pp. 239-247). 
Jackman, W. S. The Correlation of Science and History {Educa- 
tional Review, Vol. IX, pp. 464-471). 
*LuKENS, H. T. The Correlation of Studies {Educational Review, 

Vol. X, pp. 364-383). 
McMuRRY, C. A. The Elements of General Method. 
McMuRRY, F. M. Concentration {Educational Review, Vol. IX, 

pp. 27-37). 
MacVannel, J. A. The Educational Theories of Herbart and Froebel. 
Parker, F. W. Talks on Pedagogics. An Outline of the Theory 

of Concentration. 
Rein, W. Pestalozzi and Herbart {The Forum, Vol. XXI, pp. 346- 

360). 
Smith, M. K. Herbarfs Life {New England Journal of Education, 

Vol. XXIX, pp. 139 ff.). 
Tompkins, A. Herbarfs Philosophy and His Educational Theory 

{Educational Review, Vol. XVI, pp. 233-243). 
*UrER, C. Introduction to the Pedagogy of Herbart. (Translated 

by J.C. Zinser.) 
Vandewalker, N. C. The Culture Epoch Theory {Educational 

Review, Vol. XV, pp. 374-391). 
Van Liew, C. C. Life of Herbart and Development of his Peda- 
gogical Doctrine. 
Ward, J. Herbart {Encyclopcedia Britannica). 



CHAPTER XI 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 



Froebel 
developed 
the principles 
of Pesta- 
lozzi along 
different 
lines from 
Herbart. 



Another great educational theorist to develop the 
principles of Pestalozzi was Friedrich Froebel, the 
founder of the kindergarten. He and Herbart may be 
regarded as contemporary disciples and interpreters of 
the Swiss educator, who was born a generation before 
them, but they continued his work along rather different 
lines. As Herbart concerned himself with method and 
the work of the teacher, so Froebel laid emphasis upon 
the child's development and activities. The latter was 
perhaps a more logical successor of Pestalozzi, whose 
immediate pupil and colleague he had been, but he, too, 
worked out more broadly and explicitly the implications 
of the master, and attempted to interpret them after 
the philosophy and science of the times. Moreover, he 
developed his system for a period of life totally untouched 
by Pestalozzi, and formulated principles and methods 
that have come to underlie every stage of education in 
modern times. 



Froebel was 
permanently 



Froebel' s Early Life and His Experience at Jena 

Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel (i 782-1852) was born 
in Oberweissbach, a village in the Thtiringian forest. 

194 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 
His father was a Lutheran clergyman, and the religious 

life 

influence of the home made an ineradicable impression ing; 
upon Froebel. The elder Froebel, however, was engrossed ^^^^ f^^^ 
in the multitudinous cares of his scattered charge, and a started his 

° ' mysticism 

little half-brother soon came to engage all the love and ^nd his 

search for 

attention of the boy's stepmother. Froebel's childhood 'unity 'and 

. 'connected- 

was consequently neglected, and he spent much time ness.' 
roving about the mysterious woods, and pondering on 
the birds, wild animals, plants, flowers, and the various 
phenomena of nature. Thus there grew within him that 
vein of mysticism and search for hidden unity which 
afterward entered so profoundly into his educational 
theories. This desire to find a ^connectedness' in all 
things was increased by the sporadic nature and the iso- 
lation from life that were only too apparent in what little 
formal schooling he did receive. At fifteen he was for 
two years apprenticed to a forester, and, although his 
master could not afford him proper instruction, the youth 
was enabled to continue his religious communion with 
nature. He enlarged his wood lore and practical ac- 
quaintance with plants, and gained some scientific knowl- 
edge of botany through books borrowed from a physician 
in the neighborhood. 

At length, Froebel's hunger for a knowledge of the 
natural scierces impelled him to overcome parental oppo- ^^.^ ^^ ^^^ 
sition and entei the university at Jena. This institution University 

of Jena, he 

had become the in!:ellectual center of Germany, and the was affected 



-. atti 
ade in sci- 



^AT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

.i^osphere was charged with the idealistic philosophy, 
the romantic movement, and the evolutionary attitude 
in science. Although Froebel was at Jena for the pur- 
pose of pursuing more practical subjects, he could not 
ence. ^gll have cscaped the discussions upon Fichtian philos- 

ophy, which were current upon the street, at the table, 
and in every informal place of meeting, and he must have 
witnessed the academic growth of Fichte's pupil and 
colleague, Schelling. He must likewise have fallen under 
the spell of the Jena romanticists, — the Schlegels, Tieck, 
and Novalis, and possibly even of their friends and pro- 
tectors, Goethe and Schiller. The advanced attitude 
in science at Jena must also have impressed the youth. 
While much of the science instruction failed to make clear 
that inner relation and mystic unity for which he sought, 
he must occasionally have caught glimpses of it in the 
lectures of the professors. Unhappily, after a couple of 
years, all this enchanted world was closed to him through 
financial difficulties not altogether his own fault, and he 
returned home in scholastic disgrace and disillusionment. 

His Adoption of Teaching and Stay with Pestalozzi 

Leaving the For the ncxt four years, Froebel was wandering and 

university in • r • i • t ,« tt • i • <• 

disgrace, he gropmg for a niche m life. He tried one occupation after 

occupationf'^ another in keeping with his preparation — ccg-j-icxilture, 

through a land-surveying, clerical work in forestr;, and manag^^- 

Dr. Gruner, ment of country estates — but manap^_d now and then to 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 197 
absorb philosophy and romanticism and indulge his liter- he stumbled 

. . upon his 

ary impulse. Eventually, m 1805, while begmnmg the life work of 
study of architecture in Frankfurt, he met Dr. Anton ^^^ °^' 
Gruner, head of a Pestalozzian model school, who per- 
suaded him of his fitness for teaching and gave him a 
position in the institution. Of the result Froebel de- 
clared : 'Trom the first I found something I had always 
longed for, but always missed ; as if my life had at last 
discovered its native element. I felt as happy as a fish 
in water." 

But it was soon evident to the new teacher that he After three 
had a sufficient knowledge of neither subject-matter nor teaching in 
the laws of mental development to achieve mxuch success trstudied 
in his chosen profession. Five days after his appoint- withPesta- 
ment he paid a brief visit to Pestalozzi at Yverdun, and Yverdun 

and learned 

upon his return undertook a systematic study of Pesta- much about 
lozzianism under the guidance of Gruner. He also began raphy, 
|in this period to develop his own principles and methods, ^e pk^f 
and, through the use of modeling in paper, pasteboard, ^^^^'^^°- 
and wood with some private pupils, came to see the value 
of the creative instinct as a means of education. After 
three years in Frankfurt he withdrew for further study 
and practice at Yverdun. The two years he spent there 
proved most profitable. He gained much from the train- 
ing in physiography and nature study that he gave the 
pupils during long walks in the country; he found an 
opportunity to study the play of children in its effect 



igS GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



He then re- 
newed his 
university 
studies, espe- 
cially min- 
eralogy, 
under Weiss 
at Berlin, 
and crys- 
tallized his 
mystic law 
of unity. 



upon intellectual as well as physical development; he 
first came to attach importance to that earliest training 
of a child by its mother; and his knowledge of music, 
which was to play so important a part in his methods, was 
greatly enlarged. Moreover, he came to feel that the 
lack of organization and the deficiency in unity and con- 
nection of studies that were always evident in Pesta- 
lozzi's work were an evidence of vagueness in aim and 
method, and he determined to eliminate these faults by 
making more definite the imderlying principles of his 
master. 

Crystallization of His Law of * Unity' at Berlin 

As a further result of his stay in Yverdun, Froebel 
began to see more than ever the need of a broader training, | 
if he were going to unify education, and as soon as pos- 
sible he gave up his work in Frankfurt, and renewed his 
university studies. He went first to Gottingen in 1811, 
but was the next year attracted to Berlin by the repu- 
tation of Professor Weiss in mineralogy. While with 
Weiss, he became fully "convinced of the demonstrable 
connection in all cosmic development," and thus crys- 
taUized that mystic law of unity with which he had long; 
been struggling. Of this he declared : — 

,,<^ "Wh^ I had recognized in things great or noble, in the life of i 
man and in the ways of God, as serving towards the development) 
of the human race, I found I could here recognize also in the smallest 
of these fixed forms which Nature alone had shaped. . . . And! 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 199 

thereafter my rocks and crystals served me as a mirror wherein I 
might discern mankind, and man's development and history." "—-^ 

For about a year the work of Froebel was interrupted 
by service in the army to repel the Napoleonic aggressions. 
Here he met his enthusiastic young friends and lifelong as- 
sistants, Heinrich Langethal and Wilhelm Middendorf , who 
had been students of theology at Berlin. Then, in 1814, he 
returned to the university, and, as an assistant to Profes- 
sor Weiss, for a time became completely immersed in crys- 
tallograph}^ as a key to the organization of the universe. 

His School at Keilhau and the Education of Man 
But Froebel had never lost sight of his original pur- in 1816, 
pose of educational reform. While at the university ^aianT^^" 
he continued his study of child nature by teaching ^^st^^edhl 
in the Pestalozzian school of Plamann,^ and his in- 'Universal 

German In- 
sight into natural science only intensified his belief in stitute'at 

Keilhau. 

the possibility of ^'a more human, related, affiliated, 
connected treatment and consideration of the subjects of 
education.^' He declined a professorship at Stockholm, 
and, in 18 16, against the advice of his friendly chief, he 
even resigned from Berlin, to take charge of the education 
of five young nephews and thus work out his pedagogical 
theories. In this venture he was soon joined by Midden- 
dorf and Langethal, and with them he founded 'The 
Universal German Institute of Education ' at the Thiirin- 

1 See footnote on p. 156. 



200 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Here he 
trained his 
pupils to self- 
expression 
through 
play, con- 
struction, 
nature 
•study, and 
romances 
and 
ballads : 



and, to 
popularize 
his prin- 
ciples, 



gian village of Keilhau.^ The education here aimed to de- 
velop the pupils harmoniously in all their powers through 
the exercise of their own activity in subjects whose rela- 
tions with one another and with Hfe had been carefully 
thought out. Self-expression and free development were 
the watchwords of the school. Much of the training was 
obtained through play, and, except that the pupils were 
older, the germ of the kindergarten was already present. 
There was much practical work in the open air, in the gar- 
den about the schoolhouse, and in the building itself. 
The lads built dams and mills, fortresses and castles, and 
searched the woods for animals, birds, insects, and flowers. 
They learned to work out practical problems in form and 
number, and had the world of imagination opened to 
them through romances, ballads, and war songs. 

To popularize the Institute, Froebel pubHshed in 1826 
a complete account of the theory practiced at Keilhau 
in his famous Education of Man? While this work is 



* Die allgemeine detitsche Erziehungsanstalt. It was first located at 
Griesheim, where Froebel's deceased brother, the father of three of the 
pupils, had been pastor, but the following year the widow bought a small 
property at Keilhau and the 'Institute' was moved there with her house- 
hold. 

2 The title in full is : Die Menschenerziehung, die Erziehungs-, Unter- 
richts-, und Lehrkunst, angestrebt der allgemeinen deutschen Erziehungsan- 
stalt zu Keilhau, dargestellt von dem Vorsteher derselhen, F.W. A. Froebel. 
I Band his zum begonnenen Knabenalter. Froebel intended to carry the 
'education of man' also through youth, but he never found time to go be- 
yond this period of early boyhood. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 201 

compressed, repetitious, and vague, and its doctrines had in 1826 pub- 
afterward to be corrected by experience, it contains the Education of 
most systematic statement of his educational philosophy ^^' 
that Froebel ever made. It consists in an application to 
education of the idealistic philosophy and the evolution- 
ary theory of the time. It describes FroebeFs interpre- 
tation of the universe and the consequent meaning of 
human Kfe, makes an exposition of his chief principles 
of education, and applies them to the various stages of 
life and to the chief school subjects. 

But the times were not ripe for such radical positions, 
and the Education of Man influenced but few people in 
their estimate of the Keilhau community or the doc- 
trines of Froebel. The Institute was even suspected 
of revolutionary tendencies, and the government inspec- 
tor of schools was ordered to investigate. This official,^ 
however, made a most favorable report, saying in 
part : — 

"I found here a closely united family of some sixty members 
held together in mutual confidence and every member seeking the 
good of the whole. . . . That this union must have the most 
salutary influence on instruction and training and on the pupils 
themselves, is self-evident. ... No slumbering power remains 
unawakened ; each finds the stimulus it needs in so large a family. 

. The aim of the institution is by no means knowledge and 
science merely, but free self-active development of the mind from 
within." 

^ This discriminating inspector was a Dr. Zeh. 



202 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



His Work in Switzerland 



Unjust sus- 
picions and 
Froebel'sown 
failings 
eventually 
produced 
financial 
disasters, 
and Froebel 
transferred 
his work to 
Switzerland. 



Nevertheless, gossip and detraction did not cease, and 
a disloyal assistant added fuel to the flames. Froebel, 
moreover, was dogmatic and irascible, and possessed little 
practical sense. While a financial crisis was for a time 
averted, the school soon found itself in serious straits. 
Froebel, meanwhile, strove to secure some place where 
he might not only rehabilitate himself, but even extend 
his work and give it a firmer basis. ^ Finally, a friend ^ 
offered his castle at Wartensee in the canton of Lucerne 
as the seat for the new educational institute, and in 1832 
the reformer began his work in Switzerland.^ The castle 
was soon found unsuitable, and Froebel accepted an invi- 
tation to locate in the neighboring town of Willisau. 
Here he met with bitter opposition from the conservative 
clergy of the vicinity, but, at a public examination held in 
1833, his work was shown to be a striking success and his 



^ It was during this period of uncertainty that Froebel wrote the out- 
line of what he had been attempting in his Letter to the Duke of Meiningen 
(1827) and his Letter to Kratise (1828), the Gottingen philosopher, and 
from these autobiographical works most of our ideas concerning his early- 
life have been derived. He expected at one time to be granted the estate 
of the duke at Helba for his enlarged school, but the offer was to a large 
extent withdrawn, and Froebel in anger broke off negotiations. 

2 Schnyder of Frankfurt, a pupil of Pestalozzi and a composer of music. 

' The school at Keilhau was meanwhile left in charge of Barop, a rela- 
tive of Middendorf, and under his prudent administration soon recovered 
all its prosperity. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 203 

reputation as an educationalist became firmly established. 
In 1835 the progressive government of Berne induced 
him to come to the castle of Burgdorf, where Pestalozzi 
had been, and start training courses for teachers of the 
canton. 

The * Kindergarten ' at Blankenburg and the Mother 
and Play Songs 

It was while conductinsr a model school at Bursfdorf While at 

f^ ^ Burgdorf, 

that it became more obvious to Froebel that '^all school he began to 

, . . , . . . , p , . devise play- 

education was yet without a proper mitial foundation, things, 
and that, until the education of the nursery was re- so^g^nd 
formed, nothing soHd and worthy could be attained." ^^^^^^^^ts 

' . o J as a means 

Through his friend, the idealistic philosopher, Krause, of training; 
the School of Infancy of Comenius ^ had been called to his he started 

his ' Kinder- 
attention and "the necessity of training gifted and ca- garten'at 

pable mothers" had been growing upon him. The edu- burg, and 

cational importance of play now appealed to him more ^^e^pub- 

strongly than ever. He began to study and devise play- Jj!^^5^ ^^^ 

things, games, songs, and bodily movements that would Play Songs. 

be of value in the development of small children, although 

at first he did not organize his materials into a system. 

Two years later, however, when his wife's failing health 

compelled him to return to Germany, he established a 

regular school for children between the ages of three and 

* For Comenius and The School of Infancy, see pp. 33 f . 



204 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

seven, which should furnish "such a course of training 
as would answer to the laws of development and the laws 
of life." The institution was located at Blankenburg, 
two miles from Keilhau, in one of the most romantic 
spots in the Thiiringian Forest, and was before long 
appropriately christened Kindergarten} Here he put 
into use the material he had invented in Switzerland, 
added new devices, and developed his system. The main 
features of this were the 'play songs 'for mother and child; 
the series of six 'gifts,' consisting of the sphere, cube, and 
other geometrical forms; and the 'occupations,' which 
applied to different constructions the principles the child 
had learned through the 'gifts.' To this, during his 
seven years in Blankenburg, he constantly added new 
material, of which accounts periodically appeared in his 
journals.^ By 1843 ^^ ^^.d thus expanded his collection 
of songs into that attractive and popular book known 
as Mother and Play Songs? This work was intended to 
illustrate concretely the principles and methods sug- 
gested in the Education of Man. 

1 That is to say, a ' garden ' in which ' children ' are the unfolding plants.! 
Froebel at first called the institution by the cumbersome anduneuphoniousj 
name of Kleinkinderheschdftigungsanstalt or Anstalt fiir Kleinkinderpflege, 
and the term Kindergarten ca.me to him like an inspiration one day while 
walking in the forest. 

2 These articles in his SonntagsUatt and Wochenhlatt were later col- 
lected and published under the title of Pddagogik des Kindergartens. 

3 Mutter- und Kose-Lieder, which grew out of an original Koseliedchen. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 205 



The Closing Days of Froebel 

Although the kindergarten attracted considerable His want of 

financial 

attention, and many teachers came to Blankenburg to judgment 

study the system, Froebel's want of practical judgment close the°^ 

eventually involved him in a heavy debt while endeavor- ^fSv^^^' 

ing to spread his gospel.^ In consequence, the institu- years of^ 

tion was obliged, in 1844, to close its doors. The next five settled again 

at Lieben- 

years Froebel spent largely in traveling about Germany stein. 
and lecturing upon his system, with much success,^ espe- 
cially before groups of mothers and women teachers. 
But in 1849 he settled down near the famous mineral 
springs at Liebenstein in Saxe-Meiningen, and shortly 
afterward married his favorite kindergartner.^ During 
this period Froebel obtained the friendship and support 
of the Baroness Berthe von Marenholtz-Biilow, who Through 
had come to the watering place for recuperation. This Biiiow, he 
intelligent and accomplished lady became his ardent dis- ^^aniTinflu- 
ciple. She brought a larsje number of people of distinction f^^^f ^ fnends, 

^ & to r r but in 1852 

in the poKtical and educational world to see his work in Prussia issued 

1 He undertook to organize a stock company, which should establish at 
Blankenburg a model kindergarten, a training school, a factory for kinder- 
garten materials, and a kindergarten publishing house. The shares were 
to be taken by German women, who have little control of the purse strings, 
and the visionary scheme was doomed to failure from the start. 

2 His first wife had died in 1839. Luise Levin, his second wife, was an 
unlettered country girl, who, from a secret devotion to Froebel, entered 
menial service at Keilhau in 1845, to be near him, and although well along 
in her thirties, succeeded in securing a kindergarten training. 



2o6 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



a decree 
against 
kinder- 
gartens, and 
Froebel died 
under the 
strain. 



operation, and secured a magnificent seat for his institu- 
tion upon the neighboring estate of Marienthal. She has 
also given us a most interesting and accurate account of 
Froebel's activities during the last thirteen years of his 
life, and after his death she spread his principles through- 
out most of Europe. Owing to her, Froebel's closing 
days bade fair to be most happy and successful, but in 
1852, through a confusion of his principles with the social- 
istic doctrines of his nephew, a decree was promulgated 
in Prussia by the minister of education,^ closing all 
kindergartens there. While his work could still be carried 
on in the other states of Germany, Froebel never recov- 
ered from this unjust humiliation. His health broke 
under the strain, and he died within the year. 



Froebel's 
principles 
grew out of 
his boyhood 
experiences, 
and out of 
the idealism, 
romanticism, 
and scientific 
thought of 
his times. 



Development of Froebel's Principles 

Such, in brief, is the historical development of Froebel's 
theories, as they were expanded and corrected by appli- 
cation to practical teaching, and came to their culmina- 
tion in the kindergarten. His underl3dng principles are 
clearly the outgrowth of the religious influences of his 
boyhood and his early communion with nature, combined 
with the idealistic philosophy, the romantic movement, 
and the scientific spirit of the day. This may be seen by 
glancing at these spiritual tendencies in his times. The 
chief feature of German idealism is an interpretation of 
1 Strangely enough, this bigot was the great educationalist, von Raumer. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 207 

the universe that holds to the unity of nature with the 
soul of man. The 'Absolute/ or God, is regarded as the 
self-conscious spirit from which originated both man and 
nature.^ Hence has arisen in the universe a manifold- 
ness within unity. Likewise romanticism, which charac- 
terized the literature, art, and religion of the period, is 
mystic in expression and symboHc in thought. It is 
synthetic rather than analytic in its view-point, and ap- 
peals to faith as upon a par with reason. Finally, in the 
scientific thought of the times there is apparent a f eehng 
of unity and inner relation.^ These influences touched 
the life of Froebel at every point, and made a profound 
impression upon one of his temperament and experience. 
Besides his associations at Jena, he listened to Fichte 
again at BerHn, and here found enthusiastic students 
of that philosopher in his co-workers, Langethal and 
Middendorf. These friends, in turn, encouraged him to 
wed that brilliant idealist and romanticist,^ who, as his 
wife, greatly influenced his earlier career. Similarly, the 
scientific views of Jena ^ were developed in his experi- 
ences while the pupil of Weiss. It is, therefore, but natu- 

* See footnote on p. 208. 

2 See p. 196. One of the science lecturers at Jena seems to have had 
ideas about the "interrelations of all animals" and to have foreshadowed 
Darwinism in his conception of man as "but a more developed type 
which all the lower forms are striving to realize." 

^ Henriette Wilhelmine EUepper (nee Hoffmeister), the daughter of a 
Prussian Councilor of War. 



2o8 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

ral that we should find Froebel adopting an organic and 
unitary view of life, symbolism and mysticism in expres- 
sion, and the conception of ordered evolution, and that, 
while his writings are scientific in form, they should 
appear vague, emotional, and difficult to comprehend.^ 
He holds to His fundamental view of organic unity appears in his 
°unityMn general conception of the universe, and the Education of 
the universe jj^^^ ^^^^^ ^j^j^ ^j^^ Statement : — 

"In all things there lives and reigns an eternal law. . . . This 
law has been and is enounced with equal clearness and distinctness 
in nature (the external), in the spirit (the internal), and in life, 
which unites the two. This all-controlling law is necessarily based 
on an all-pervading, energetic, living, self-conscious, and hence 
eternal Unity. . . . This Unity is God. All things have come 
from the Divine Unity, from God, and have their origin in the 
Divine Unity, in God alone. All things live and have their being 
in and through the Divine Unity, in and through God. The 
divine effluence that lives in each thing is the essence of each thing." 



k 



* Unity,' * Continuity,' and * Development ' as Educational 

Ideals 

From this Froebel derives his educational aim. Edu- 
cation with him "consists in a recognition of the eternal 
law, — its origin, essence, totality, connection, and in 

^ Froebel is unconsciously following Schelling, when he talks of nature, 
symbolism, or aesthetics; and Fichte, when he deals with will, duty, 
personality, and morality. Most striking is his resemblance to Schelling 
especially as he seems to have borrowed much even of his phraseology 
from the pupil of Schelling, his friend Krause. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 209 

tensity, and the representation and practice of it in the 

life of man." And in keeping with the definition, he holds 

in detail : — 

( 
"The purpose of education is to raise ntan into free, conscious which gives 

obedience to the divine principle that lives in him, and to a free ^^^ j^ educa- 
representation of this principle in his life. It should lead man to tion; 
see that this principle also constitutes the essence of nature and 
is permanently manifested in nature. It should demonstrate 
that the same law rules both nature and man, and that man and 
nature proceed from God and are conditioned by him. It should 
lead and guide him to clearness concerning himself, to peace with 
nature, and to unity with God. The inner essence of things is 
recognized by the innermost spirit of man through outer manifesta- 
tions, and all education, all instruction and training, start from the 
outer manifestations of man and things, and, proceeding from the 
outer, act upon the inner, and form its judgments concerning the 
inner." 

As a corollary to this principle of 'unity,' Froebel holds and to 

. » ' -, 1 c 1 1 ? • n • 1 'continuity' 

to continuity and development m all creation, and so and 'develop- 
in the human race. "God," he declares, "creates and creation, 
works productively in uninterrupted continuity.'' And 
again, he says : " God never grafts in the world of nature, 
nor is the soul of man to be grafted. God develops the 
most minute and imperfect elements, through ever-rising 
stages, according to a law eternally founded in itself, and 
ever unfolding out of its own nature." This progressive 
development from the lower to the higher grades of 
being, Froebel finds equally in the advancement of the 



2IO GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 
in the history racc and in the history of the individual. For this 

oftheindi- -i .i i i r i c i 

viduai, reason, while he does not formulate any set culture 

epoch ' theory, like that of the Herbartians, he holds that 
"each successive generation and each successive human 
being, inasmuch as he would understand the past and 
present, must pass through all preceding phases of hu- 
man development and culture," and he vigorously op- 
poses "sharp limits and definite subdivisions within the 
continuous series of the years of development, which 
withdraw from attention the permanent continuity." 
More explicitly he maintains : — 

"It is highly pernicious to consider the stages of human develop- 
ment — infant, child, boy or girl, man or woman — as really 
distinct,! and not, as life shows them, as continuous in themselves 
in unbroken transitions. . . . The child should be viewed and 
treated with reference to all stages of development and age, with- 
out breaks and omissions ; the vigorous and complete development 
of each successive stage depends on the vigorous, complete, and 
characteristic development of each and all preceding stages of life. 
The boy has not become a boy, nor has the youth become a youth, 
' , by reaching a certain age, but only by having lived through child- 
hood, and, further on, through boyhood, true to the requirements 
of his mind, his feelings, and his body. The child, the hoy, the man, 
indeed should know no other endeavor hut to he at every stage of de- 
velopment wholly what this stage calls for" 

Similarly, this FroebeHan law of 'unity' appears in 
every aspect of educational theory under a variety of 

1 Contrast Rousseau's four set divisions of Emile's life. See pp. 86 ff. 
and I02. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 211 

guises. It is almost too comprehensive in its various 
applications, meanings, and implications to be fitly named 
by any one word or phrase. Besides elaborating the unity 
in the universe, nature, humanity, individual man, and 
age periods, Froebel insists upon a unity in the intellec- in intellec- 
tual, physical, and moral life of the individual at all cai,'and 
stages, and in the relations of his mental phases of know- ^^d\n know- 
ing, feeling, and willing. ■ '^'^^ 

* Connectedness ' of All Education 

He likewise holds to a unity in subject-matter and a 
' connectedness ' in the course of study, although he does 
not, with the Herbartians, crystallize any definite plan of 
'correlation' or 'concentration.' For instance, he de- 
clares : — 

"Human education requires the knowledge and appreciation of He likewise 

religion, nature, and language in their intimate living reciprocity 'connected-^ 

and mutual interaction. Without the knowledge and appreciation ness' between 

of the intimate unity of the three, the school and we ourselves are ^^^^^ ^£ Jj^J 

lost in the fallacies of bottomless, self -provoking diversity." course of 

study, be- 

This integral unity should exist, Froebel holds, because cause of a 

feeling of 

of a feeling of dependence upon a higher being. Nature dependence 
study gives acquaintance with the handiwork and mani- being, 
festation of God, mathematics makes clear the reign of 
law in the universe, and language must be connected with 
religious instruction, in order that words may be joined 
with real ideas in life. So writing is but an expression 
of real ideas, reading should arise from a desire to recall 



212 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



and between 
school and 
home life. 



what has been written, and art is a striving to represent 
the inward Hfe. Knowledge is a tree upon which the 
new subjects spring as shoots from the estabHshed trunk 
and branches, and all compose one organic whole. And 
there should likewise be a 'connectedness' between the 
school and home life, unless the former is to be regarded as 
a means of cramming children's minds with extraneous 
and external information and culture, — 'far-fetched, 
veneered, knowledge and skill,' instead of raising knowl- 
edge and skill, like a plant, from within. The home and 
the school are to work together in training the child, 
and the means of education should combine domestic 
and scholastic occupations. 



His general 
method is 
that of 
'self -activity,' 



* Self -activity ' and * Creativeness ' as the Methods of 
Education 

These are a few of the applications of Froebel's fun- 
damental principle of 'unity.' , Probably the most char- 
acteristic and fruitful consequence of this law was its 
implication as to the proper procedure in education. 
Froebel sums up his general method under the term ' self- 
activity,' and explains it after his usual mystic fashion. 
Since the divine effluence is the essence of each thing, and 
it is the destiny and life work of all things to reveal their 
essence, man, as an intelligent and rational being, should 
strive to become fully conscious of the divine effluence in 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 213 

him and reveal it with self-determination and freedom. 
"For the living thought," says Froebel, ''the eternal 
divine principle as such demands and requires free self- 
activity on the part of man, the being created for freedom 
in the image of God." ^ And later, in speaking of 'devel- 
opment,' he adds : — 

"This should be brought about, not in the way of dead imitation 
or mere copying, but in the way of living, spontaneous self -activity. 
... In every human being, as a member of humanity and as a 
child of God, there lies and lives humanity as a whole ; but in each 
one it is realized and expressed in a wholly particular, peculiar, 
personal, and unique manner, and it should be exhibited in each 
individual human being in this wholly peculiar, unique manner." ^ 

By 'self -activity' Froebel, therefore, means more than 
mere activity. It is not simply activity in response to 
suggestion or instruction from parents or teachers that 
he seeks, but activity of the child in carrying out his 
own impulses and decisions. Individuality must be 
developed by this activity, and selfhood given its rightful 
place as the guide to the child's powers when exercised 
in learning. It is not sufficient that the learner shall do 
all for himself, but activity must enlist the entire self 
in all its phases of being. Development is produced 
through the exercise of fimction, which consists in the 
iimfolding of a system of inner aims. The soul does not 
so much possess activity as it is itself activity, and instead 

^ Education of Man, § 9. 2 Qp^ ^^7^ § j-5^ 



214 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



which is 
both a pro- 
cess of self- 
realization " 
and of so- 
cialization: 



of being influenced by, or conforming to, its environment, 
it tends to make its environment more and more the in- 
strument of self-realization. Training, therefore, should 
begin with the internal tendencies and volitions of the 
pupil, but, through the activities stimulated and the 
interest guaranteed thereby, the instructional process 
should aim .to direct him toward ideals and achieve- 
ments of* greater importance and permanence than 
would result from these impulses, if left to them- 
selves. However, this increasing self-realization or 
individualization is also a process of socialization. It 
is bound up with participation in institutional life. 
Each one of the various human institutions in which 
the mentality of the race has manifested itself — the 
home, the school, the Church, the State, and society at 
large — becomes a medium for the activity of the indi- 
vidual, and at the same time a means of social control. 
Each institution has .its own function, but tends to, com- 
plement all the others. The individual can be educated 
only in the company of other human beings. Hence, 
Froebel held that in education 'self-activity' should bej 
used to enable the child to enter into the life about him 
and to find the connection between himself and tte ac- 
tivities of others. As far as he enters into the surround-! 
ing life, he is to receive the development needed for the 
present, and thereby also to be prepared for the future. 
Likewise, the power of execution is developed in connec- 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 215 

tion with the increasing knowledge, and there is no gap 
between theory and practice. 

Hence with this development through ' self-activity ' is and he con- 
connected Froebel's educational principle of ^creative- thisthT 
ness/ by which new forms and combinations are made and F^^eat?ve°^ 
expression is given to new images and ideas. Here also ^^^^•' 
he at first gives his theory a mystic garb and states it in 
religious language. He declares that ''since God created 
man in his own image, man should create and bring forth 
like God ; this is the high meaning, the deep significance, 
the great purpose of work and industry, of productive 
and creative activity." ^ But when he comes to deal 
with constructive handwork in the school, he bases his 
position more upon psychological grounds and says : — 

"Man is developed and cultured toward the fulfillment of his 
destiny and mission, and is to be valued, even in boyhood, not only 
by what he receives and absorbs from without, but much more 
by what he puts out and unfolds from himself. . . . Plastic 
material representation in life and through doing, united with 
thought and speech, is by far more developing and cultivating than • 
the merely verbal representation of ideas." ^ 



The *Play Songs,' * Gifts,' and * Occupations,' and 
Other Features 

Eyen in the Education of Man,FYoehe\ declares that the 'Self-activ- 
ity' and 
systematic use of self-activity' and ' creativeness ' has 'creative- 

.lO^a/, §23. ^ op. cit., ^ g4. 



2i6 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



ness appear 
in the train- 
ing at Keil- 
hau, as re- 
corded in the 
Education of 
Man: 



but were 
more com- 
pletely ap- 
plied in the 
(i) song, 
(2) move- 
ment 

and gesture, 
and (3) con- 
struction 
of the kinder- 
garten. 



The best 
illustration 
of Froebel's 



been neglected in the education of the day. He here 
advocates development through drawing, domestic ac- 
tivities, gardening, building of dams, houses, and for- 
tresses, paper cutting, pasteboard work, modeling, and 
other forms of creation. As we have seen,^ while all these 
means of expression were utilized at Keilhau, not until 
his experiment at Blankenburg were they definitely 
organized. In the kindergarten, ' self-activity ' and ' crea- 
tiveness ' found complete application and concrete expres- 
sion, and Froebel devoted the rest of his Hfe to develop- 
ing and describing the course of this new educational insti- 
tution. The training consists of three coordinate forms 
of expression : (i) song, (2) movement and gesture, and 
(3) construction; and mingled with these and growing 
out of each is the use of language by the child. But these 
means, while separate, are intended to cooperate with 
and interpret one another, and the process is connected 
as an organic vs^hole. For example, when the story is 
told or read, it is expressed in song, dramatized in move- 
ment and gesture, and illustrated by a construction 
from blocks, paper, clay, or other material by modeling 
or drawing. By thus embodying the ideas in objective 
form, imagination and thought are to be stimulated, 
the eye and hand trained, the muscles coordinated, 
and the motives and sentiments elevated and strength- 
ened. 

1 See pp. 199 f. and 203 f. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 217 

• The Mother and Play Songs ^ were believed by Froebel system is 
to contain the best illustration of his system. Of them Mother and 
he says, ^'I have here laid down the fundamental ideas ^^'^y^^^^^- 
of my educational principles." This work consists of an 
organized series of carefully selected songs, games, and 
pictures, and is intended to make clear and direct the 
educational instinct of the mother. The songs should 
enable her to see that the child's education begins at 
birth, and should awaken her to the responsibility of 
motherhood. They should likewise exercise the infant's 
senses, limbs, and muscles, and, through the loving union 
between mother and child, draw both into intelligent and 
agreeable relations with the common objects of life about 
them. For the culture of the maternal consciousness, 
Froebel prefixed to the 'play songs' seven 'mother's 
songs,' in which he depicts the mother's feelings in viewing 
her new-born infant, and her hopes and fears as she wit- 
nesses the unfolding physical and mental Hfe of the child. 
The fifty 'play songs' contain each three parts: (i) a 
motto for the guidance of the mother ; (2) a verse with 
the accompanying music, to sing to the child ; and (3) a 
picture illustrating the verse. Each song is also con- 
nected with some simple exercise, which answers to a 
special physical, mental, or moral need of the child. 
The selection and order of the songs were determined 
with reference to the child's development, which ranges 

^ See p. 204. 



2i8 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



The most 
original of 
the materials 
are the 
'gifts' and 
'occupa- 
tions.' 



from the most spontaneous movements up to his ability 
to represent his perceptions with drawings.^ A more 
complete commentary is afforded by the ' closing thoughts^ 
and the ' explanations ' furnished by Froebel at the end of 
the work.2 

The most original and striking of the kindergarten 
materials are the so-called 'gifts' and 'occupations.'^ 
The distinction between these two types of media is rather 
arbitrary, as they are so closely connected in use. The 
'occupations' represent activities, while the 'gifts' fur- 
nish ideas for these activities. The 'gifts' combine and 
rearrange certain definite material, but do not change the 
form, while the ' occupations ' reshape, modify, and trans- 
form their material. The products obtained from the 
one are transient, but from the other are more permanent. 
The emphasis in kindergarten practice 'has come to be 
transferred from the 'gifts' to the 'occupations,' which 



^The 'play songs' are divided into four groups according to their 
content : (i) spontaneous movements and the psychology of early child- 
hood ; (2) classification of objects according to number, form, and size ; 
(3) ideas of the heavenly bodies ('light songs') ; and (4) development of 
the moral sense. 

2 For a description of the songs, see especially Wiggin and Smith's 
Kindergarten Principles and Practice, pp. 42-61 and 92-108 ; or White's 
Educational Ideas of Froebel, Chap. IX. Frances and Emily Lord have 
rendered the Mutter und Kose-lieder into English under the title Mother's 
Songs, Games, and Stories, while Susan E. Blow has translated The Songs 
and Music and The Mottoes and Commentaries in separate volumes. 

3 See p. 204. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 219 

have been largely increased in range and number. Froe- 
bel also strove to carry out his principle of 'development' 
in the order and gradation of the 'gifts.! They are so 
arranged as to lead from the properties or activities of one 
to those of the next, and, while introducing new impres- 
sions, repeat the old. Every new 'gift' is used alter- 
nately with the old, and the use of the new makes the play 
with the old freer and more intelligent. The first 'gift' 
consists of a box of six woolen balls of different colors. 
They are to be rolled about in play, and thus develop ideas 
of color, material, form, motion, direction, and muscular 
sensibility. A sphere, cube, and cylinder of hard wood 
compose the second 'gift.' Here, therefore, are found a 
known factor in the round sphere and an unknown one 
in the cube. A comparison is made of the stability of 
the cube with the movability of the sphere, and the two 
are harmonized in the cylinder, which possesses the 
characteristics and powers of each. The third 'gift' 
is a large wooden cube divided into eight equal cubes, 
thus teaching the relations of the parts to the whole and 
to one another, and making possible original construc- 
tions, such as armchairs, benches, thrones, doorways, 
monuments, or steps. The three following 'gifts' divide 
the cube in various ways so as to produce sohd bodies of 
different types and sizes, and excite an interest in num- 
ber, relation, and form. The way is thus prepared for 
constructive geometry, algebra, and trigonometry, and 



220 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

for artistic constructions. In addition to the six regular 
^ gifts,' additional play with 'tablets/ 'sticks/ and 'rings/ 
sometimes known as 'gifts' seven to nine, was also intro- 
duced by Froebel. This material introduces surfaces, 
lines, and points in contrast with the preceding soHds, and 
brings out the relations of area, outline, and circumference 
to volume. It offers innumerable opportunities for the 
invention of symmetrical patterns and artistic design.^ 
The 'occupations,' which apply to practice what has 
been assimilated through the ^ gifts,' comprise a long list 
of constructions with paper, sand, clay, wood, and other 
materials. These require greater manual dexterity and 
include considerable original design. They should not 
be undertaken until after the ^ gifts,' as one must be 
conscious of ideas before attempting to express them. 
Corresponding with the 'gifts ' that deal with solids maybe 
grouped ' occupations ' in clay modeling, cardboard cutting, 
paper folding, and wood carving ; and with those of sur- 
faces may be associated mat and paper weaving, stick shap- 
ing, sewing, bead threading, paper pricking, and drawing.^ 

* Pictures of the 'gifts' and a more complete account of their use can 
be found in Froebel's Pedagogics of the Kindergarten (translated by Jarvis), 
Chaps. IV-XIII; White's Educational Ideas of Froebel, Chap. VIII; 
Wiggin and Smith's FroeheVs Gifts; and especially Kraus-Bolte's Kin- 
dergarten Guide, First Volume. 

2 An excellent account of the 'occupations' is given in Wiggin and 
Smith's FroeheVs Occupations, and even greater details in Kraus-Bolte's 
Kindergarten Guide, Second Volume. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 221 

Nature study always formed part of Froebel's cur- Nature study, 
riculum. His principles of unity and the symbolic rev- 
elation of God in nature impelled him to introduce the 
children early to an informal study of the natural sci- 
ences. Even in the school at Keilhau ^ there were con- 
tinual excursions for the study of nature. Likewise, the 
songs, games, and stories of the kindergarten are filled 
with references to natural surroundings, and the pupils 
are encouraged in their instinctive love for flowers and 
living creatures through gardening and the care of pet 
animals. These occupations satisfy their inherent crav- 
ings, call forth love, wonder, self-control, and self-sacri- 
fice, and furnish material for the development of obser- 
vation and intelligence. The children gain a permanent 
interest in natural science, become familiarized with the 
phenomena of nature, and come to feel a communion and 
living connection with God. 

Since Froebel held to the method of ' self -activity ' and in his dis- 
' creativeness ' and appealed more to individual interests, Froebel be- 
his idea of discipline necessarily varied from the authori- ggj'tlng rid of 
tative one usually imposed. He held that the principle evil traits by 

J yr jr x- starving 

to be observed was a harmony between spontaneity and them, 
self-control. He would have evil overcome by starva- 
tion and atrophy and by the nurture and development 
of the good. He believed that the will could thus be 
diverted without paralyzing it, and that, if bad traits 
^ See pp. 200 and 216. 



222 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Froebel 
never car- 
ried his sys- 
tem beyond 
the kinder- 
garten, ex- 
cept by 
mapping out 
a course for 
'transition 



were not entirely removed, their proportion would at 
least be reduced. With him punishment was not abol- 
ished, but the necessity of it practically disappeared. 

The schooling beyond the kindergarten stage was 
never worked out by Froebel. He felt that the continuity 
and development in the life of the individual should be 
unbroken, and in the Education of Man he promises at 
some future time to consider the stages of education 
beyond boyhood, with which he closes there. But after 
the kindergarten was once formulated, he became com- 
pletely absorbed in the development of early childhood, 
and could not be induced for any length of time to take 
an interest in the later stages of education and the ordi- 
nary school problems. In consequence, except for a 
small effort of Froebel toward the close of his life to map 
out a course for 'transition classes,' no one has ever se- 
riously undertaken to bridge the gap between the kinder- 
garten activities, connected with physical development 
and sense impressions, and the elementary school, which 
concerns itself more with judgment, reasoning, and ab- 
stractions. 



Froebel's 
faults are 
obvious, — 
the pictures, 
music, and 
verses of his 



FroebePs Crudities, Mysticism, and Symbolism 

For one pursuing destructive criticism only, it would 
not be difficult to find flaws in both the theory and prac- 
tice of Froebel. In fact, the defects in both his typical 
works, Education of Man and Mother and Play Songs, are 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 223 
singularly obtrusive, if they be regarded only superficially. Play Songs 

Til 1 • 111-1 are crude; 

In the latter the pictures are rough and poorly drawn, 
the music is crude,^ the verses are difficult to memorize, 
and the arrangement and sequence seem at times to lack 
consistency. But the illustrations and songs served 
well the interests and needs of those for whom they were 
produced, and Froebel himself was not insistent that 
they should be used after more satisfactory compositions 
were found. ^ He wished only to afford examples of how 
the mother might aid in the development of her child, 
and no other collection of children's songs has ever 
been devised to compare with his in educational value. 
Similarly, the mysticism, artificiality, and even triviaHty and his 
that appear in various forms throughout the Education ^mbXm 
of Man bear no essential relation to his basal principles ^^^^ . ,. 

•' A r- artificiality 

or his argument. In undertaking to make apparent are fantastic, 

vague, and 

and efficient at every point the fundamental law of hfe confusing; 
and development, Froebel often strains his principle of 
'unity,' and becomes most vague and fanciful. Such, 
for example, would seem to be his constant attempts to 
reveal the relationship underlying apparent conffict in 
his 'harmonization of opposites' and his 'connection by 

1 It was composed for most of the songs by his disciple, Robert Kohl. 

2 However, despite the different interests and occupations of American 
life and the advance in knowledge and music, there is a group of Froebe- 
lians in this country that adheres to the letter rather than the spirit 
of the master. 



224 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

contrasts.' ^ So s)7mbolism is overemphasized by him, 
and is often fantastic and confusing, especially when the 
basal philosophy is not understood. Since all things Kve 
and have their being in and through God and the divine 
principle in each is the essence of its Hfe, everything is 
liable to be considered by Froebel as symbolic in its 
very nature and as made by God to reveal and express 
himself. Thus with him the sphere becomes the symbol 
of diversity in unity,^ the faces and edges of crystals all 
have mystic meanings,^ and the numbers three and 
five reveal an inner significance.^ At times this sym- 
bolism descends into a literal and verbal pun, where it 
seems as if Froebel can hardly be serious or is struggling 
for a suggestive system of mnemonics. Such is his ex- 
planation of the ^bair as the S3rmbol of unity, the ^nurs- 
ling' as a great appropriating 'eye,' and the 'boy' as one 
who strives to 'announce' himself.^ At times, too, 
Froebel's mystic views and attitude on divine revelation 
make a curious and incongruous combination with his 

1 See, for example, 'rest' and 'motion' in Education of Man, § 25. 

2 Op. ciL, § 69. 3 Op, cit., §§ 70-72. 
^This is seen in his description of plants and flowers, while in his 

treatment of the family he especially vents an eccentric disquisition on 
the number five. 

^ Ball is interpreted as 5(ild des)a/Z, Sdugling as one who (S)augt, and 
Kind as the stage where he {veT)kundigL See Pedagogics of the Kinder- 
garten, p. 32, and Education of Man, §§ 20 and 28. Similarly, op. cit., 
§ 25, the 'senses' (S-inn) are regarded as the means of 'self-active in- 
ternalization' (5'elbsthatige/?^»erlichmachung). 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 225 

evolutionary doctrines, and his most profound philosophy 
is interspersed with marked religiosity.^ But, after all, but these 
these faults, striking as they are, are incidental, and inddentaY^ 
while they have been magnified and expanded into im- notbTmag- 
portant features by many of Froebel's Hteral disciples,^ ^^^^• 
they should not be divorced from the real psychological 
principles, upon which they are mere excrescences. 
Likewise, Froebel's practical work, while at times me- 
chanical, over-schematized, and bolstered by esoteric 
speculations, is most ingenious, and has enabled society 
to provide for a neglected and most important stage in 
education. 

The Value of His Principles 

It is, at any rate, a most lamentable interpretation And, on the 

that takes account only of the shortcomings of Froebel. he made 

He was the truest successor of Pestalozzi. Like the 'naturd^^^ 

Swiss reformer, he desired a natural development of man, ^^^^^^p- 

' ^ ' ment more 

but he had a clearer and more definite comprehension definite, and 

applied ad- 

of what this consisted in, and he greatly enlarged the vanced 

r T 1 • . . . , . . 1 . philosophy 

means of accomphshmg a trammg m keepmg with it. andsden- 
Pestalozzi, through his sympathy for humanity and the education, 
inspiration of the moment, was interested primarily 
in the practical aspect of educational reform, and devel- 
oped his theories afterward. Froebel, on the other hand, 
sought to formulate general principles from his observa- 

^ See, for example, op. cit., § 23. 2 q^ footnote on p. 223. 

Q 



226 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

tion, make his educational method grow out of their 
application, and constantly test his generalizations by 
practical experience. While the one would teach the' 
pupil to secure accurate knowledge through observation 
and to imitate, the other would enable him to train his 
senses and emotions to proper activity as a preparation 
for later knowledge and activity of a more original sort. 
Froebel has thus not only supplemented Pestalozzi, 
but is recognized as one of the first reformers to apply 
the advanced philosophy and scientific ideas of the nine- 
teenth century to education. While Froebel never 
developed his system much beyond the earliest period 
of life, his principles are suggestive of the most im- 
portant tendencies in all stages of education to-day. 
Through his ideas of * continuity' and 'development' 
one may more thoroughly understand the nature of 
the child and realize the central feature in all Kfe rela- 
tions. From these principles may be derived the real 
purpose of education and the means and method for ac- 
Thus he compHshing it. Thus may be secured a training adapted 
principles to cvcry period of life and stage of development, furnish- 
ing tLrmay ^^S ^^^ highest philosophy and the most ennobling ethical 
toany^period ^hought. , Now that the meaning of his * self-activity' 
of life. and ' creativeness ' is coming to be comprehended, they 

are recognized as most essential laws in the educational 
process, and are to be valued as the universal criterion 
of effective teaching. In harmony with Froebel, the 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 227 

school is coming to be conceived as an institution in 
which to discover and work out individuality by means 
of initiative and execution ; and spontaneous activities, 
like play, constructive work, and nature study, have more 
and more become the means to this end. The im- 
portance of having all instruction lead to activity as 
directly as possible is now appreciated, and education 
has been given a social, moral, and practical meaning 
throughout the learning process. Thus the implications 
of Froebel's system are apparent in all modern educa- 
tional theory and practice. 

The Spread of Froebelianism through Europe 

Froebelianism and the kindergarten, then, contained 
principles that were destined to spread by virtue of their 
educational value. But their dissemination was greatly 
facihtated after the death of Froebel by the reformer's 
devoted followers. Froebel's widow, Middendorf, and 
the Baroness von Biilow especially became the heirs of 
his spiritual possessions, and proceeded at once to make 
the heritage productive. Middendorf did not long sur- 
vive the master, and Frau Froebel's part in the wide 
evangelization was somewhat limited by her education. 
It remained for the intellectual and cultured noble- p^^^^^^^j'^g 
woman, by means of her social position and knowledge J^^^^ spread 

' -^ ^ ^ bytheBaron- 

of modern languages, to become the great apostle of ess von bu- 

low through- 

Froebel throughout Europe. Shortly after his death, out Europe- 



228 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



France, 



Belgium, 



Holland, 



England, 



and Italy ; 



having failed to obtain a revocation of the edict in Prussia 
from either the ministry or the king, the baroness turned 
to foreign lands. She visited France, Belgium, Holland, 
England, Italy, Russia, and nearly every other section of 
Europe, and the propaganda was everywhere eagerly 
embraced. In Paris she took rooms at the Louvre, 
and gave parlor lectures to audiences including the most 
distinguished men of all religions and philosophies, who 
accepted the Froebelian principles and system with re- 
markable unanimity. The minister of education in 
Belgium invited the baroness to Brussels, where she 
addressed numerous circles of prominent women, school 
ofhcers, and teachers, and by means of great personal 
efforts succeeded in establishing model kindergartens 
and a journal devoted to the movement. In Holland 
she founded kindergartens at Amsterdam, the Hague, 
Rotterdam, and Gueldern, and interested the minister 
of education, many school inspectors, and directors of 
schools in the maintenance of such institutions. She 
carried on a similar work in England, and popularized 
the idea throughout the British Isles ; and kindergartens, 
endorsed by nimierous men of repute, sprang up on all 
sides. Through her lectures in Italy a system of kinder- 
gartens was started at Naples and elsewhere, and great 
promises of support were exacted. A most noteworthy 
recognition was shown the principles she represented by 
the invitation given her to speak before the Xongress 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 229 

of Philosophers' at Frankfurt in 1867. This distin- and laid be- 
fore the 
guished gathering had been called to inquire into con- 'Congress of 

temporary educational movements. As a result of the atFraX^^^ 

elucidation of Froebelianism by the baroness during four ^^^' 

afternoons of the sessions, a committee of the society, 

known as the 'Froebel Union,' was formed to continue 

a study of the system. Among the achievements of this 

organization was the foundation five years later of an 

institution for training kindergartners at Dresden. 

Thus, while the kindergarten was not generally adopted Thus the 

by the governments, it was widely established by volun- principles 

tary means throughout civihzed Europe, and in all coun- g^eTtiy^ex- 

tries the work has grown to mammoth proportions. In- ^^^^^^^^ 

struction in Froebelian principles is now generally re- ^eptin 

Germany. 

quired in most normal and teacher training institutions of 
Europe. Sometimes, as in France and England, it has 
been combined with the infant school movement,^ and 
has lost some of its original characteristics, but even 
in these cases the cross-fertilization has afforded abun- 
dant educational fruitage. Only in Germany, the native 

^ While the infant schools originally began in France in 1769, and were 
the prototypes of the ecoles maternelles, the movement also started in 
England independently a generation later through Robert Owen. This 
philanthropist hoped thereby to mitigate the illiteracy of the factory 
population, which was largely recruited by children from five to seven, 
who were bound out for nine years before receiving any education. The 
schools were especially popularized through the writings of Samuel 
Wilderspin and through 'The Home and Colonial Society.* 



230 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

land of the kindergarten, has serious hostility to the idea 
remained. The deadening effects of the ministerial de- 
cree, despite the efforts of the heroic baroness in estab- 
lishing and encouraging kindergarten associations, hung 
over the German states for a decade; and even since the 
removal of the ban, kindergartens have, with few ex- 
ceptions, never been recognized as real schools or paix of 
the regular state system. The kindergartners arei not 
subject to the requirements demanded of all other ele- 
mentary teachers, and are forbidden to touch on the for- 
mal school subjects or work of any sort that would seem 
to duplicate the primary curriculum. Even to-day the 
German kindergarten is regarded as little more than a 
day nursery or convenient place to deposit small chil- 
dren, and have them amused. The educational principles 
for which Froebel contended are not generally conceded 
in Germany.^ 



The kinder- 
garten has 
had the wid- 
est influence 



The Kindergarten in the United States 

The influence of the kindergarten has been more 
marked in the United States than in any other country. 
In the early sixties Elizabeth P. Peabody and others 

1 When Professor Payne of the London College of Preceptors visited 
the kindergartens in six German cities in 1874, he found that, while the 
theory was just, natural, and all-sided, the teachers were inefi&cient, and 
the rooms were often small, unsanitary, and ill-lighted. (See Payne, 
Lectures on the History of Education, pp. 203-271.) More than a genera- 
tion later the same general conditions seem to obtain. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 231 
became interested in accounts of Froebel's system, and, in the United 

States. 

without a proper knowledge of the details, imdertook 
to open kindergartens in Boston. Notwithstanding 
the immediate success of these institutions and the evi- 
dent enjoyment of the children, Miss Peabody felt that it was in- 
troduced in 
she had not succeeded in getting the rea,l principles and Boston by 

, 1 . 1 Elizabeth P. 

spirit of Froebel, and m 1867 she went to study with Peabody. in 

his widow, who had been settled in Hamburg for several M^riJ^^ ^ 

years. Upon her return the following year Miss Pea- ?°s(.Youis 

bodv corrected the errors in her work and estabhshed a ^y s^san e. 

•' Blow; and 

periodical to explain and spread Froebelianism. The support 

was given 

remainder of her life was spent m mterestmg parents, the work by 

C XT TTill 

philanthropists, and school boards in the movement, Mrs.Quiicy 
and a service was done for the kindergarten in America otiiers.^' ^^ 
almost equal to that of Baroness von Btilow in Europe. 
In 1872 Maria Bolte, afterwards the wife of Professor 
John Kraus,^ who had studied with Frau Froebel, was 
induced to settle in New York, and, through her pupils 
and those of other German kindergartners, the cause was 
rapidly promoted. The same year saw the beginning of 
Susan E. Blow's great work in St. Louis, where her free 
training school for kindergartners was opened. Two 
years later S. H. Hill of Florence, Massachusetts, started 
a munificent provision for free kindergartens in his 
vicinity, and four years after that Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw 

^ She has since been widely known as Mrs. Maria Kraus-Bolte, and is 
still (191 1) living in New York City. 



232 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



It soon be- 
came part oi 
the public 
school sys- 
tem m St. 
Louis, San 
Francisco, 
Boston, and 
other cities. 



began establishing them at various locations in the 
neighborhood of Boston, until she was supporting at 
least thirty such institutions. Many other philan- 
thropic persons became much interested, and over one 
hundred voluntary associations were soon organized to 
found and maintain kindergartens. Through the work 
of Emma Marwedel, who was invited to California in 
1876 by the 'Froebel Union,' successful training classes 
were established at Los Angeles, Oakland, and Berkeley. 
Voluntary kindergartens were also rapidly opened, and 
there was soon organized the ^Golden Gate Association' 
at San Francisco, which at its height supported forty- 
one free institutions and an excellent training school. 
In Philadelphia, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Pittsburg, 
Cincinnati, Cleveland, Washington, Baltimore, Louis- 
ville, and other centers, subscriptions were before long 
raised by the churches and other philanthropic agencies, 
and the work everywhere grew apace. 

But philanthropy and private foundations, after all, are 
restrictive, and it was not until the kindergartens began 
to be adopted by the school systems that the move- 
ment became truly national in the United States. Boston 
early added kindergartens to her public schools, but 
after several years of trial gave them up on account of 
the expense. The first permanent establishment under 
a city board was made in 1873 at St. Louis through the 
efforts of Miss Blow and Dr. William T. Harris, then city 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 233 

superintendent of schools. Twelve kindergartens were 
organized at first, but others were opened as rapidly as 
competent directors could be prepared at Miss Blow's 
training school. Within a decade there were more than 
fifty public kindergartens and nearly eight thousand 
pupils in St. Louis. San Francisco authorized the incor- 
poration of kindergartens in the public schools in 1880 ; 
and New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Pittsburg, 
Rochester, Providence, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and most 
other progressive cities and even many smaller munici- 
palities have gradually made the work an integral part 
of their system. At present there must be nearly two 
hundred cities that include this stage of education in their 
schools. That means a total of some fifteen hundred 
public kindergartens ^ with nearly twice as many teachers 
and fully one hundred thousand pupils. About twenty 
of the cities employ a special supervisor to inspect the 
work. Excellent training schools for kindergartners are 
also maintained by half a hundred public and quasi- 
public normal institutions. A large number of extensive 
treatises, manuals, and periodicals devoted to the sub- 
ject of kindergarten work are pubhshed, and have a wide 
circulation in every state of the Union.^ 

1 The number would be nearly quadrupled by the addition of the pri- 
vate kindergartens. 

2 A most complete, though succinct, account of the history of the kin- 
dergarten in the United States is given in Susan E, Blow's Kindergarten 
Education, pp. i-io, imder the head of 'four sharply defined movements.' 



234 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



SUPPLEMENTARY READING^ 

I. Sources 

*Froebel, F. W. a., Autobiography (translated by Michaelis and 
Moore) ; Education by Development (translated by Jarvis) ; 
Education of Man (translated by Hailmann) ; Letters (edited 
by Heinemann) ; Letters on the Kindergarten (translated by 
Poesche, and edited by Michaelis and Moore) ; Mother Songs, 
Games, and Stories (translated by F. and E. Lord) ; Mottoes 
and Commentaries of Mother Play (translated by Eliot and 
Blow) ; Pedagogics of the Kindergarten (translated by Jarvis) ; 
Songs and Music of Mother Play (translated by Blow). 

Lange, W. FroebeVs Gesammelte Pddagogische Schriften (three 
volumes) and Reminiscences of Froebel {American Journal of 
Education, Vol. XXX, pp. 833-845). 

*Marenholtz-Bulow, Berthe M. von. Reminiscences ofFriedrich 
Froebel. 

Seidel, F. FroebeVs Mutter- und Kose-Lieder. 

II. Authorities 

*Barnard, H. (Editor). Kindergarten and Child Culture. 

*Blow, Susan E. Educational Issues in the Kindergarten, Kinder- 
garten Education {Monographs on Education in the United 
States, edited by N. M. Butler, No. I), Letters to a Mother, 
and Symbolic Education. 

BoARDMAN, J. H. Educational Ideas of Froebel and Pestalozzi. 

*BowEN, H. C. Froebel and Education by Self -activity. 

1 For further references to the Froebelian literature, consult Bowen, 
Froebel, pp. 197-204 ; Cubberley, Syllabus in the History of Education, 
pp. 273 f. ; and Monroe, Syllabus in the History and Principles of Educa- 
tion (edition of 191 1), pp. 66 £E. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN 235 

BucHNER, E. F. Froebel from a Psychological Standpoint (Educa- 
tion, Vol. XV, pp. 105-113 and 169-173). 

Butler, N. M. Some Criticisms of the Kindergarten (Educational 
Review, Vol. XVIII, pp. 285-291). 

Cole, P. R. Herbart and Froebel: an Attempt at Synthesis. 

*CoMPAYRE, G. History of Pedagogy. (Translated by Payne.) 
Pp. 446-465- 

EucKEN, R. The Philosophy of Froebel (The ForumrVol. XXX, 
pp. 172 ff.). 

GoLDAMMER, H. The Kindergarten. (Translated by Wright.) 

*Hailmann, W. N. Kindergarten Culture. 

Hanschmann, a. B. The Kindergarten System. 

Harrison, Elizabeth A. A Study of Child Nature. 

Herford, W. H. The Student's Froebel. 

Hopkins, Louisa P. The Spirit of the New Education. 

*HuGiiES, J. L. FroebeVs Educational Laws. 

*Kraus-Bolte, Maria, and Kraus, J. The Kindergarten 
Guide. Two volumes. 

MacVannel, J. A. Educational Theories of Herbart and Froebel 
and The Philosophy of Froebel (Teachers College Record, Vol. 

IV, pp. 335-377). 

MARENHOLTZ-BiJLOW, Berthe M, von. The Child and Child 
Nature. 

Meiklejohn, J. M. D. The New Education. 

MuNROE, J. P. The Educational Ideal. Chap. VIII. 

*Payne, J. Froebel and the Kindergarten. 

*Peabody, Elizabeth P. Education in the Home, the Kinder- 
garten, and the Primary School and Lectures in the Training 
Schools for Kinder gar tners. 

Pollock, Louise. National Kindergarten Manual. 

PouLSSON, Emilie. Love and Law in Child Training. 

Proudfoot, Andrea H. A Mother's Ideals. 

*Quice:, R. H. Educational Reformers. Chap. XVII. 



236 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

ScHAEFFER, Mary F. A Cycle of Work in the Kindergarten. 
ShirrefFj Emily. A Short Sketch of the Life of Friedrich Froehel 

and The Kindergarten System. 
Snider, D. J. FroeheVs Mother Play Songs, The Life of Froebelj 

and The Psychology of FroeheVs Play Gifts. 
Thorndike, E. L. The Psychology of the Kindergarten {Teachers 

College Record, pp. 377-408). 
Weaver, Emily A. Paper and Scissors in the Schoolroom. 
Welton, J. A Synthesis of Herbart and Froehel. 
*White, Jessie. The Educational Ideas of Froehel. 
WiGGiN, Kate D. Children's Rights. 
WiGGiN, Kate D. (Editor). The Kindergarten. 
WiGGiN, Kate D., and Smith, Nora A. FroeheVs Gifts, FroeheVs 

Occupations, Kindergarten Principles and Practice, and The 

Republic of Childhood. 



CHAPTER XII 

LANCASTER AND BELL, AND THE MONITORIAL 
SYSTEM 

In 1798, an English Quaker, but twenty years of age,. To educate 
opened a novel type of school for the children of the poor southwlrk, 
in Southwark, London. The youthful teacher, whose startST 
name was Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838), had come to sXd^°"^^' 
feel that ^'the want of system and order is almost uni- 
form in every class of schools within the reach of the 
poor.'' He declared, " there is Httle encouragement for 
masters, parents, and scholars; and while this is the 
case, it is no wonder that ignorance prevails among the 
poor.'' That this illiteracy and lack of organization 
might be overcome, he began himself to educate as many 
of the barefoot and unkempt children of the district as 
he could. His schoolroom was soon crowded with a 
hundred or more pupils, and, in order to teach them 
all, he used the older scholars as assistants. He taught 
the lesson first to these 'monitors,' and they in turn 
imparted it to the others, who were divided into equal 
groups. Each monitor cared for a single group. 

237 



238 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



His success, 
chronicled in 
his Improve- 
ments in 
Education, 
caused the 
system to be 
spread 
throughout 
England. 



'The Royal 
Lancasterian 
Institution' 
was founded 
to continue 
his work ; 
but Lan- 
caster soon 
left England, 
and the asso- 
ciation be- 
came known 
as 'The Brit- 
ish and For- 
eign Society.' 



Success of Monitorialism, and the Formation of the 
* British and Foreign' and the * National' Societies 

The work was very successful from the first, and Lancas- 
ter called further attention to it in 1803 by an account 
he published under the title of Improvements in Education 
as it respects the Industrious Classes of the Community. 
The school was twice enlarged by persons of wealth; 
many of the nobility and aristocracy came to visit the 
institution; and the king summoned Lancaster for an 
interview, and made a generous contribution for his work. 
A training school was soon opened to spread this system 
among other teachers, and Lancaster began to lecture 
on his methods throughout England and to establish 
'monitorial' schools everywhere. It was generally be- 
lieved that the problem of national education had at 
length been solved, and that an effective means had been 
found for educating everyone with Httle cost. Lancaster, 
however, proved most reckless, and his venture had by 
1808 plunged him into debt to the extent of six thousand 
pounds. Having rescued him from the debtors' prison, 
certain philanthropic men of means in that year founded 
'The Royal Lancasterian Institution,' to continue the 
work on a practical basis. But within half a dozen years, 
Lancaster, who seems never to have been able to get along 
with people, withdrew from the association and started 
a school of his own. A few years later he left England 



LANCASTER AND BELL, MONITORIAL SYSTEM 239 

for foreign lands, where he again met with failure and 
poverty, and eventually died in the city of New York, 
a disappointed man. 

Yet the organization for perpetuating his work, which To compete 
after the withdrawal of Lancaster became known as non-sectlrian 
'The British and Foreign Society,' continued to flourish thrchurch 
and perform a splendid service for education. So sue- f ^^^^^ 
cessful was it that the Church of England began to fear 'The 

National 

its liberalistic influence upon education. Following the Society' 

nonconformist attitude of its Quaker founder, the edu- Beiiin 

cation of the society included rehgion and reading the had^pub^ ° 

Bible, but permitted no catechism or denominational ^J^J^^^^^^ 

instruction of any sort. To most AngHcan churchmen ^^^ Experi- 
ment in Edu- 
such religious teaching seemed loose and colorless, and cation, on th^ 

, . . 'monitorial' 

m 1811 'The National Society for Promoting the Educa- basis. 
tion of the Poor in the Principles of the Estabhshed 
Church' was founded by them. This long-named 
association was to use the 'monitorial' system, and to 
have a Reverend Doctor Bell as its manager. Andrew 
Bell (17 53-1 83 2) had been an army chaplain and the 
superintendent of an orphanage in India, and had the 
idea of monitorial instruction suggested to him by the 
Hindu education. A year before Lancaster opened his 
school, Dr. Bell had published his treatise known as 
An Experiment in Education Made at the Male Asylum 
of Madras; and while the Quaker philanthropist began 
his system independently, it is not unlikely that he re- 



240 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

ceived help later from Bell. Although they formed no 
part of Bell's original methods in Madras, the catechism 
and the prayer book were now taught dogmatically in the 
schools founded by the 'National Society/ and as Dr. 
Bell proved an admirable director, the affairs of the 
organization prospered marvelously. In consequence, a 
healthy rivalry with the older association of the Lan- 
casterians rapidly grew up. 

Differences between the Systems of Lancaster 
and Bell 

'Monitorial' or 'mutual' instruction, however, was 
not original with either Lancaster or Bell. Besides being 
used by the Hindus,^ it has formed part of the Jesuit 
system of education,^ and was confidently recommended 
. by Comenius in his Didactica Magna? Nevertheless, 
it was the work of Lancaster and Bell that greatly de- 
veloped the method and brought it into prominence. 
The plans of the two men, while analogous, differed 
The system somcwhat in spirit and details. Without considering 
was broader the methods of rcKgious instruction, the system of Lan- 

thanthatof , n • ^ i i i i .' 

the National castcr was generally animated by broader motives. 
Soaety, and \Yhile he failed to teach certain subjects, it was simply 

was more j j tr j 

elaborate. because his rcsourccs were limited: but the National 



^ See Graves, History of Education before the Middle Ages, pp. 87 f. 
2 See Graves, History of Education during the Transition, p. 218. 
' See pp. 32 f. 



LANCASTER AND BELL, MONITORIAL SYSTEM 241 

Society purposely curtailed the range of its instruc- 
tion on the ground that ^' there is a risk of elevating 
those who are doomed to the drudgery of daily labour 
above their station, and rendering them unhappy and 
discontented with their lot." In the matter of details, 
both men worked out systematically the idea of instruct- 
ing through monitors, and both used a desk covered 
with sand^ as a means of teaching writing; but in other 
respects Lancaster elaborated the method more than 
Bell. By having the speller or other text printed in 
large t3^e and suspending it from the wall, he made one 
book serve for a whole class, or even for the entire school. 
Through the use of slates and dictation he had five hun- 
dred boys spell and write the same word at the same 
time. He arranged a new method in arithmetic whereby 
any child who could read might teach the subject with 
accuracy. Moreover, although a member of the Society 
of Friends, Lancaster introduced more military discipline 
into his system than did his rival. He believed in com- 
pany organization, drill, regimental control, precision, 
and a prompt observance of the word of command. He 
also developed a system of badges, tickets, offices, and 
other rewards, and, in order to avoid flogging, a set of 
punishments by which the offender was made an object 
of ridicule rather than physical pain. There were also 
a number of unessential differences between the two 

^ See footnote i on p. 240. 



242 



GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



systems in the manner of arranging their classes.^ They 
Hkewise differed in their method of training teachers. In 
order to acquire the Lancasterian system, a teacher was 
\i required to spend a week or more as a monitor in each 
of the classes from the lowest to the highest, while with 
the Bell organization he had to become an actual pupil 
in each of the grades. 



The moni- 
torial sys- 
tem, while it 
accomplished 
much when 
little atten- 
tion was 
given to 
education, 
was formal 
and mechan- 
ical. 



Value of the Monitorial System in England 

Neither Bell nor Lancaster deserves much praise as 
an educational reformer. Each was vain and peda- 
gogically ignorant, and saw but one side of education. 
While both societies accompHshed much good at a time 
when Kttle attention was given to instruction and less 
to the problems of education, the monitorial systems 
overemphasized repetition in the teaching process and 
treated education purely from the standpoint of rou- 
tine. The monitorial method was not real instruction, 
but a formal drill. It had no principles and little of 
the elasticity that was apparent in the more psycho- 
logical methods of the reformers on the Continent. The 
mechanical basis of such a system is exposed by the arith- 

1 For example, Lancaster had his pupils located in a mass at the center 
of the room, while Bell arranged their desks aroimd the walls. The classes 
when reciting under Lancaster's monitors consisted of ten or twelve 
standing in semicircles ; Bell placed a larger number in each group and 
seated them on benches in three sides of a square. 



LANCASTER AND BELL, MONITORIAL SYSTEM 243 

metical boast of Lancaster. He calculated: '^Each boy 
can spell one hundred words in a morning. If one hun- 
dred scholars can do that two hundred mornings yearly, 
the following will be the total of their efforts at improve- 
ment.'' He then shows that there will be an annual 
achievement of two million words spelt. Similarly, in 
arithmetic he seems to hold that it is simply a question 
of the number of sums done in a given time, and not at 
all a matter of principles. 

Yet the Lancaster-Bell schools did awaken the con- But it 
science of the English nation to the need of general edu- national 
cation for the poor, and the system emphasized the school E^jJ^^nT ^ 
as an organized commimity for mutual aid. The societies ^^^?^V^ 
afforded a substitute, though a poor one, for national otherwise 

obtained. 

education in the days before the government was willing 
to pay for general education or the denominations were 
able to furnish it, and they became the avenues through 
which such appropriations as the government did make 
were distributed. 

Results of Lancasterianism in the United States 

In the United States, where complete freedom in TheLan- 

religion obtained, the system of Dr. Bell and the Na- system^was 

tional Society found Httle footing. The monitorial |^to°many 

system in its Lancasterian form, however, was intro- ^erican 

•^ ' ' aties, 

duced into New York City in 1806. The 'Society for 
the EstabHshment of a Free School,' after investigating 



244 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

the best methods in other cities and countries, decided 
to try the system of Lancaster. It spread rapidly 
through New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, and other states, and before long had in- 
fluenced nearly all cities of any size as far south as 
Charleston, and west as far as Cincinnati. In 1818 
Lancaster himself was invited to America, and assisted 
in the monitorial schools of New York, Brooklyn, and 
Philadelphia. A dozen years later the system began to 
be introduced into the high schools and academies, and 
for two decades it was the prevailing method in second- 
ary education. Training schools for teachers on the 
Lancasterian basis became common, 
and did a In fact, the monitorial system was destined to perform 

whereTrer''^ a great scrvicc for American education. At the time of 
schools had j^g introduction, pubHc and free schools were generally 
lacking, outside of New England. Even in that section 
the early Puritan provision for schools had largely be- 
come a dead letter, and the facilities that existed were 
meager, and available during but a small portion of the 
year. In all parts of the country ilHteracy was almost 
universal among children of the poor. This want of 
school opportunities was rendered more serious by the 
rapid growth of American cities, which was evident even 
in the earliest part of the century, and by the consequent 
increase and concentration of ignorance, poverty, and 
crime. Societies like that in New York City, formed to 



LANCASTER AND BELL, MONITORIAL SYSTEM 245 

study and relieve the situation, were driven to the con- 
clusion that free schools must be instituted, if the poorer 
classes were to be trained to habits of thrift and virtue. 
Because of its comparative inexpensiveness, these philan- 
thropic associations came to regard the system of Lan- 
caster as a very godsend for their purpose. And when, 
before long, the people awoke to the crying need of public 
education, the legislators found the monitorial schools 
the cheapest way out of the difficulty, and the provision 
they made for these schools gradually prepared the way 
for the ever increasing expenditures and taxation that 
had to be made before satisfactory schools could be 
established. Hence the introduction of Lancasterianism 
may well be considered to have provided a basis for the 
substantial pubHc support of education now universal in 
the United States. 

Moreover, the Lancasterian schools were not only and the work 
economical, but most effective when the educational ^^^ ^^^^^' 
conditions of the times are taken into consideration. 
Even in the cities, the one-room and one-teacher school, 
which had been perpetuated from the district system, 
was the prevailing type, and grading was practically 
unknown. The whole organization and administration 
was shiftless and uneconomical, and a great improve- 
ment was brought about by the carefully planned and 
detailed methods of Lancaster. The schools were made 
over through his definite mechanics of instruction, 



246 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

centralized management, well-trained teachers, im- 
proved apparatus, discipline, hygiene, and other fea- 
tures. We can, then, well understand the enthusiasm 
for these new schools that is apparent in the utterances 
and writings of statesmen, educators, and other per- 
sons of the times that felt responsible for the training 
of the people. One of the earliest and best known 
estimates is that of the governor of New York, De 
Witt CHnton, who in 1809 declared in his address at 
the dedication of the new building of the Free School 
Society : — 

"When I perceive that many boys in our school have been 
taught to read and write in two months, who did not before know 
the alphabet, and that even one has accomplished it in three weeks 
— when I view all the bearings and tendencies of this system — 
when I contemplate the habits of order which it forms, the spirit 
of emulation which it excites, the rapid improvement which it 
produces, the purity of morals which it inculcates — when I behold 
the extraordinary union of celerity in instruction and economy of 
expense — and when I perceive one great assembly of a thousand 
children, under the eye of a single teacher, marching with un- 
exampled rapidity and with perfect discipline to the goal of knowl- 
edge, I confess that I recognize in Lancaster the benefactor of the 
human race. I consider his system as creating a new era in edu- 
cation, as a blessing sent down from heaven to redeem the poor 
and distressed of this world from the power and dominion of 
ignorance." ^ 

1 For Clinton's complete eulogy of the system adopted by the Free 
School Society, of which he was president, see Bourne, History of the 
Public School Society of the City of New York, pp. 18-20. 



LANCASTER AND BELL, MONITORIAL SYSTEM 247 

But while the monitorial methods met a great edu- 
cational emergency in the United States, they were 
clearly mechanical, inelastic, and without psychological 
foundation. Naturally their sway could not last long, 
and as pubHc sentiment for education increased, and butdisap- 
enlarged material resources enabled the people to make educational 
greater appropriations for education, the obvious defects imprwed. 
of the monitorial system became more fully appreciated 
and brought about its abandonment. It gave way to 
the more psychological conceptions of Pestalozzi and 
to those afterward formulated by Froebel and Herbart. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Sources 

*Bell, a. An Experiment in Education. 

*Lancaster, J. British System of Education and Improvements in 
Education. 

11. Authorities 

*Adams, F. History of the Elementary School Contest in England. 

Pp. 44-64. 
*Barnard, H. American Journal of Education. Vol. X, pp. 323- 

531- 

Bartley, G. C. T. The Schools for the People; History, Develop- 
ment, and Present Condition. Pp. 50-51 and 60-61. 

Bourne, W. O. History of the Public School Society of the City of 
New York. Pp. 9-20, 32, 172-173, and 687-698. 

Fitch, J. G. Educational Aims and Methods. Lect. XI. 

*GiLL, J. Systems of Education. Pp. 162-202. 



248 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

Gregory, R. Elementary Education. 

HoLMAN, H. English National Education. Chap. II. 

Leitch, J. Practical Educationalists and their Systems. Pp. 121- 

165. 
*Meiklejohn, J. M. D. An Old Educational Reformer, Dr. 

Andrew Bell. 
Oliver, H. K. Advantages and Dejects of the Monitorial System 

of Instruction. 
Randall, S. S. History of the Common School System of the 

State of New York. Pp. 28-32. 
Ross, G. W. The Schools of England and Germany. Chap. II. 
*Sadler, M. E., and Edwards, J. W. Summary of Statistics, 

Regulations, etc., of Elementary Education, England and Wales 

(English Education Department, Special Reports, Vol. II, pp. 

436-544). 
*Salmon, D. Joseph Lancaster. 
*Sharpless, I. English Education. Pp. 1-8. 
Southey, R. and C. C. The Life of the Rev. Andrew Bell. 
Spalding, T. A. TheWork of the London School Board. Pp. 13-14. 
Steiner, B. C. History of Education in Maryland. Pp. 57-62. 
Stockwall, T. B. History of Public Education in Rhode Island. 

Pp. 254-294. 
WiCKERSHAM, J. P. History of Education in Pennsylvania. Pp. 

254-285. 
Wightman, J. M. Annals of the Boston Primary School Com- 
mittee. Pp. 35-116. 



CHAPTER XIII 

HORACE MANN AND THE AMERICAN 
EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 

The close of the first half of the nineteenth century 
was distinguished by a remarkable revival in educa- 
tion throughout the United States. This awakening 
began and centered in Massachusetts, and was greatly 
strengthened by the leadership and efforts of Horace 
Mann. To appreciate the underlying causes, one must, 
therefore, learn something of the life and purposes of 
this great American educator. 

The Early Career of Horace Mann 

Horace Mann (i 796-1859) was born on a small farm The paren- 
tage and 
m FrankHn, Massachusetts. His parents were plam training of 

people, but of superior mental capacity and consider- Ma^nn^tended 

able strength of character, and the little town in which ^^^nd^s- 

he grew up also furnished an environment of unusually try.initia- 

*=* ^ tive, and a 

high ideals in intelligence and morals. The hard con- reverence 

, . ^ forknowl- 

ditions of New England farm life and the early loss of edge. 
his father fixed in him lifelong habits of industry, initia- 
tive, and responsibihty. While the school training of 
the day was meager and circumscribed, he learned in 
his boyhood to love nature and her handiwork, and ac- 

249 



250 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

quired a reverence for knowledge and books. He also 

secured much instruction and intellectual enrichment 

from the small library of his native town.^ While he 

reacted most strongly from the stern, uncompromising 

Calvinism of the religious life of the times, it inculcated 

in him a faith in God and a subordination of his moral 

nature to the higher law, and he obtained through its 

After gradua. systcm a remarkable drill in logic. At the age of twenty, 

coTege?^ young Mann happened upon a brilliant preparatory 

yearslsa tcachcr, and was speedily fitted to enter the sophomore 

Mann stud- ^^^^^ ^^ Browu University in the fall of the same year. 

iediaw, and jjc was graduated in 1819 at the head of his class, and 

soon became 

a legislator, was shortly afterward engaged for two years as a tutor 
in Latin and Greek at his alma mater. After demon- 
strating extraordinary ability as a classical scholar and 
teacher, and concluding, far in advance of his times, 
that the natural sciences were much superior in content 
and discipHne to the classics, he turned his attention to 
the study of law^ as a profession and of metaphysics 



1 This library was presented to the town by Benjamin Franklin, for 
whom the place was named. He requested his friend, Dr. Richard Price 
of London, to purchase to the amount of twenty-five pounds such books 
as would foster sound religion and government. 

2 Mann studied at the famous law school of Judge Gould in Litchfield, 
Connecticut, which, during its existence of less than half a century, gradu- 
ated sixteen United States senators, fifty members of Congress, five 
cabinet officers, several foreign ministers, and innumerable justices of the 
federal and higher state courts. 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 251 

as an avocation. As a practitioner he impressed every 

one with his conscientiousness^ as much as with his 

knowledge of the law and his logic and eloquence. 

Before long he entered the political arena, and served 

the state in the Lower House for six years (1827-1833) 

and in the Senate for four more (1833-183 7), the last 

two of which he was president of the body. A brilliant At forty-one 

career as a statesman lay before him, but he retired at from politics, 

the age of forty-one to accept the secretaryship of the gecreta^^of 

newly created State Board of Education. Through that JJ^^^^j^^. 

office, however, he was destined to elevate education setts Board 

of Education. 

not only in Massachusetts, but through all the Union. 

His Fitness for the Secretaryship of the State Board 
of Education 

Horace Mann's equipment for this, his real work in 

Hfe, will readily be perceived. By heredity and early He was 

training he was suffused with an interest in humanity equipped for 

and all phases of philanthropy. This manifested itself refoSl!Tnd 

preeminently in his efforts in behalf of education, al- J^f^^J^^" 

though he was always an ardent worker for the cause withdevo- 
of charity, the kindly treatment of defectives and 

iThe heterodoxy of Mann kept him from the ministry, the most 
natural agency for social reform in those times, but he seems to have gone 
into law with a similar spirit. "Never espouse the wrong side of a cause 
knowingly," he wrote later to a young lawyer, "and if unwittingly you find 
yourself on the wrong side, leap out as quickly as you would jump out of a 
vat of boiling brimstone." See Livingston's American Portrait Gallery, 
p. 196. 



252 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

dependents/ temperance, anti-slavery, and all other 
forms of social improvement. An ardent belief in what 
he continually termed 'the improvabiUty of man' is 
shown in all his college orations ^ and early public 
speeches, and his optimistic views were strengthened by 
reading the Constitution of Man by George Combe ^ and 
his later companionship with that high-minded exponent 
of phrenology. Mann's early potentiaHty had been 
further rendered actual and shaped by the best educa- 
tion available, by constant reading and thinking, and by 
experience in writing and speaking and in practicing 
and making law. He may well be judged oversanguine 
in his faith in knowledge and education as the means 
of social advancement, and it may be that he under- 
estimated the inertia of custom, habit, and institutions; 
but just such an enthusiasm and consecration as his 
were essential for the prodigious reforms that were to 
be undertaken. He certainly possessed a remarkable 
combination of intelKgence, courage, and experience for 
leadership in this direction. The law proposed for the 
new Board of Education numerous duties in the way 
of collecting and spreading information concerning the 
common schools and of making suggestions for the 

1 The greatest service in this direction was his aggressive advocacy of 
the establishment of the Insane Hospital at Worcester by the legislature. 

2 His graduation address at Brown was on The Gradual Advancement 
of the Human Species in Dignity and Happiness. ^ See footnote on p. 267. 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 253 

improvement and extension of pubKc education, but it 
provided no real powers. It was obvious that the per- 
manence and influence of the Board would have to 
depend almost wholly upon the intelKgence and force of 
character of its secretary, and the peculiar fitness of 
vlann can alone account for his selection. By reason 
of his efforts in behalf of educational reform, his per- 
sistent advocacy of the bill as a member of the legisla- 
ture, and his undoubted merits as an educator, a school- 
master named James G. Carter would seem to have 
been the logical man for the secretaryship. The 
teachers of the state were bitterly disappointed that 
one outside their number should have been preferred, 
but it would now appear that the choice of a broad- 
minded and philanthropic statesman was most wise. 
Mann, moreover, did not seek the place, and the sur- 
render of a fairly lucrative practice and an assured 
career for the mere pittance and the uncertainty of the 
secretaryship was no small sacrifice. Yet his only hesi- 
tation was as to his qualifications for 'filling this high and 
responsible office,' and his zeal to 'adequately perform its 
duties.' Having accepted the responsibility, he wrote the 
governor that ''so long as I hold this office, I devote myself 
to the supremest welfare of mankind upon earth," and, 
closing his law office, he made the memorable declaration : 

"The interests of a client are small compared with the interests of 
the next generation. Let the next generation, then, be my client." 



254 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



His chief 
means of 
arousing the 
people and 
improving 
education 
were his 
campaigns 
through the 
state. 



His Labors in Reforming Education 

During the next twelve years, as secretary of the 
State Board, Horace Mann subserved the interests of 
his accepted cHent most faithfully. Educational ideals 
were in sad need of expansion and democratization, and 
school organization, curricula, and methods called for 
enlargement and a complete modernization. To awaken 
the people, the new secretary at once started upon an 
educational campaign through the state, and during 
each year of his tenure he made an annual circuit for 
this purpose. At first the reception given him was 
cold and spiritless ; often after a hard journey he found 
but a handful of an audience, and upon one occasion he 
had even to sweep out the room himself and put it in 
order.^ Keenly as he felt this want of appreciation, 
nothing could daunt him, and these annual visits gradu- 
ally grew in interest and enthusiasm, and eventually he 
came to meet almost with ovations. Besides the regu- 
lar trips, Mann held himself subject to calls from 
everywhere, within the state and out, for educational 
meetings, lectures, and addresses; and when, after 
seven years, teachers' institutes were introduced into 



1 It was at Pittsfield that he found this lack of preparation, and Gov- 
ernor Briggs assisted him in his janitorial duties. After a meeting in 
Northampton he declared: "I have found so large a mountain, there is 
danger that I shall break my own neck in trying to lift it," 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 255 

Massachusetts, he constantly served as an efficient lec- 
turer and instructor. 

An even more effective means of disseminating Mann's his Annual 
reforms was found in the series of Annual Reports the&tate° 
which he issued from the first, and in the publication of ^^'^ ' 
his Common School Journal, begun in the second year of 
his administration. The Reports were by law to give 
information concerning existing conditions and the 
progress made in the efficiency of public education 
each year, and to discuss the most approved organiza- 
tion, content, and methods for the common schools, in 
order to create and guide public opinion most intelli- 
gently. The material in these documents fills one 
thousand pages of Mann's collected Works. It exhibits 
the great benefits to the state and the individual of a 
public school training. While practically every educa- 
tional topic of importance at the time is dealt with, his 
suggestions as a whole maintain a definite point of 
view and a connected body of practical doctrine. Some- 
times they seem commonplace, but it must be remem- 
bered that they were not so then, and that the work of 
Mann did much to render them familiar. The last 
report contains a summary of what he had endeavored 
to accomplish and shows how all his criticism of the 
schools had been undertaken as a conscientious duty 
and with a full realization of what the consequences to 
himself would be. The Reports were frequently written 



256 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

hastily and are sometimes poorly arranged, illogical, 
and exaggerated; but the style was always forceful and 
animated, and often fervid and eloquent. They are 
the most important and enduring of his writings, and 
will ever be regarded as educational classics. While 
addressed to the State Board, they were really intended 
for the citizens of Massachusetts in general, and their 
influence was felt far beyond the confines of the state. 
They vitally affected school conditions everywhere in 
New England, and were read with great interest in all 
parts of the United States, and even in Europe. An 
issue of eighteen thousand copies of one report was 
made for free distribution by act of the New York 
legislature, another was reprinted in Great Britain, and 
Germany translated and distributed editions of several. 
his semi- The Commofi School Journal, on the other hand, was 

monthly 

Common issucd scmi-mouthly and consisted of sixteen pages to 
Journal, cach number. It was devoted to spreading information 
concerning school improvement, school law, and the pro- 
ceedings of the State Board, and it urged upon school 
officials, parents, and children their duties toward health, 
morals, and intelligence. This publication, which was 
continued by Mann during the whole of his administra- 
tion, laid him under the necessity of much writing him- 
self and of securing contributions from other educators. 

A medium somewhat akin to Mann's publications in 
the improvement of educational facilities was his general 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL ,257 

estabKshment of school libraries throughout Massa- Hsencour- 
chusetts. This the reformer brought to pass in a large of school 
number of towns and school districts through a sub- ^^^^ ' 
sidy from the state. The first impulse was given these 
institutions in 1838; and while the enthusiasm for their 
creation and use lasted only five years, they were pro- 
ductive of an immense amount of good in creating a 
taste for proper reading and in democratizing educa- 
tion. 

But probably the most permanent means of stimu- 
lating the revival and propagating the reforms led by 
Horace Mann was the foundation by Massachusetts of and his es- 
the first pubHc^ normal schools in this country. A ofthffosf 
devoted friend of Mann^ offered to donate ten thou- ^^''^^ state 

normal 

sand dollars for this purpose, in case the state would schools, 
supply a like amount. This generous proposal was 
accepted by the legislature in 1838. It was decided to 
found three schools, so located that all parts of the 



* James G. Carter established a short-lived normal institution in 182 1 at 
Lancaster, Massachusetts, and the Rev. Samuel R. Hall conducted schools 
of this character in Vermont at Concord (1823-1830), Andover (1830- 
1837), and Plymouth (1837-1840) ; but the normals founded through 
Mann were the first under state auspices. See Dexter, History of Edu- 
cation in the United States, pp. 373 ff. 

2 Edmund Dwight, the member of the Board who had been most in- 
strumental in bringing about the selection of Mann, and afterward as- 
1 sisted the work of the Board by gifts on several occasions and by supple- 
ments to Mann's salary, made this offer anonymously, 
s 



258 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



He lavished 
time and 
strength 
upon his 
work with 
totally in- 
adequate 
compensa- 
tion. 



state might be equally served.^ Although the name 
'normal' was borrowed from France, the curriculum and 
methods of these institutions were largely influenced by 
those prevailing in the 'seminaries' for teachers in 
Prussia. 2 The course consisted in a review of the com- 
mon branches from the teaching point of view, work in 
educational theory, and training in a practice school 
under supervision. Despite the hostility of conserva- 
tives, incompetent teachers, and sectarian dogmatists 
everywhere in the state, the schools, while not largely 
attended, were a great success from the start, and have 
been of immense service in raising the standard of 
teaching in Massachusetts and through New England.^ 

The arduous and unremitting labors of Mann in 
instituting and promoting the various means of school 
reform must have made the greatest inroad upon his 
time and strength. His correspondence alone, in a day 
before the general use of stenography, typewriting, or 
even fountain pens, is estimated to have averaged thirty 
or forty letters a day. It is known that during his 



* One school was to be in the northeast, another in the southeast, and 
the third in the less populated west. The first, located at Lexington, was 
afterward removed, first to West Newton, and then to Framingham ; the 
second, started at Barre, was later taken to Westfield ; but the third has 
always been situated at Bridgewater. 

2 See Graves, History of Education during the Transition, pp. 304 f . 

' Much of the success and influence of the schools was due to the happ 
selection of the Rev. Cyrus Pierce for the first principalship. 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 259 

entire incumbency his work extended over fifteen hours 
of each day, and that he was frequently afHicted with 
insomnia for weeks.^ Moreover, through all this period, 
his income did not amount to a living wage. While his 
salary was at length raised from one thousand to fifteen 
hundred dollars, no allowance was made for running his 
office and but little for traveling expenses. He paid for 
many conventions and hundreds of copies of his Reports 
and Journal out of his own pocket. As a result, he 
was at times unable to purchase sufficiently nourishing 
food, and only the addition made to his salary by a 
wealthy admirer ^ kept him from want. 

The Opposition of Conservative Politicians, Schoolmen, 
and Theologians 

But the most trying obstacle that the great reformer He was bit- 
had to contend with was the dense conservatism and po'sedTy aU 
bitter prejudices often animating people that he felt JJ^^gg^^I.^" 
ought to have eagerly supported him in his herculean 
efforts. The Board and its secretary were for years 
violently assailed by sordid politicians, unprogressive politicians, 
schoolmen, and sectarian preachers. Attempts were 
early made in the legislature to abolish the Board of 

^ When we remember that, as' a consequence of overwork on the 
farm and in college, Mann was a 'hfelong invalid/ and that, owing to his 
official toil and want of sleep, his brain often 'flamed like a brush-pile on a 
distant heath in the wind,' the greatness of this conquest of mind over 
matter can be somewhat realized. 2 gge footnote 2 on p. 257. 



26o GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

Education or to have its duties and powers transferred 
to the governor and council, but after a fierce fight 
this type of opposition ceased. 

Mann's controversy with the Boston schoolmasters 
was also sharp, but decisive. His Seventh Annual Report 
(1843) g^ve an account of his visit to foreign schools, 
especially those of Germany, and praised with great 
warmth the instruction without textbooks, the enthu- 
siastic teachers, the absence of artificial rivalry, and the 
mild discipline in the Prussian system. The report did 
Boston not stigmatize the conservatism of the Boston schools 

cipais, ^"^' or bring them into comparison with those of Berlin, 
but the cap fitted only too well. The pedagogues 
were seriously disquieted, and proceeded to answer most 
savagely. Although not all the Boston teachers were 
opposed to the new order of things, the Principals' 
Association through a committee of thirty-one joined 
battle by issuing their Remarks on the Seventh Annual 
Report of Eon. Horace Mann. This was a pamphlet of 
one hundred and forty-four pages, which undertook to 
vindicate the historic educational system of Massachu- 
setts, and to discredit the normal schools, libraries, 
methods, discipline, and other features of the new 
regime. The secretary straightway made a Reply of 
even greater length, and when they returned to the 
charge with a Rejoinder, he soon had an Answer read}^ 
While much in Mann's pamphlets is unfair, weak in 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 261 

argument, and unnecessarily severe, he had been un- 
justly and deeply wounded, and in the main was felt 
to be right. When the smoke of battle had cleared 
away, it was seen that the leaders of the old order had 
been completely routed and had wrought their own 
destruction.^ 

A more insidious attack upon the broad-minded and the 
reformer was that led by the ultra-orthodox. The old orthodox. 
schools of the Puritans with their dogmatic religious 
teaching had been steadily fading away some time before 
the new Board had been inaugurated, but the educa- 
tional revival of Mann made this fact patent for the 
first time. There was, in consequence, a tendency upon 
the part of many conscientious but narrow people to 
charge this disappearance to the reformer, whose liberal 
attitude in religion was well known. Others took ad- 
vantage of the popular clamor to vent upon Board and 
secretary the spleen which for various reasons they had 
accumulated against them. The assault, which cul- 
minated with articles in the sectarian press and with 
polemic sermons, was vigorously and successfully re- 

1 In fact, the prominence that this controversy gave him as the apostle 
of reform was the making of Mann's reputation as a great educator. 
We have, in consequence, been prone to forget, in our admiration of his 
lofty character, strong determination, and great devotion that Mann was 
not the only prominent educational leader of the times, and that men like 
Carter were in the field long before him, and that Barnard served the 
cause of the common schools for half a century afterward. 



262 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

pelled by the secretary and others, including many of 
the more sensible orthodox people. Mann throughout 
the contest consistently maintained that the Bible 
should be read in the pubHc schools, but without com- 
ment, and thus became the first educator of prominence 
to attempt an adjustment of the relations of state and 
church. 



After a 
dozen 
years of 
service he 
retired and 
entered 
Congress, 
and later 
undertook 
the presi- 
dency of 
Antioch 
College. 



His After Life in Congress and at Antioch College 

In 1848 Mann resigned the secretaryship of the 
Board to enter Congress as an eloquent opponent to the 
extension of slavery.^ While his subsequent life reveals 
the same high moral and philanthropic principles, his 
efforts after leaving the secretaryship do not especially 
concern us here. In 1853 ^^ retired from active politics, 
and, in the hope of furthering certain advanced ideals 
that he held for higher education, he undertook the 
presidency of Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio. 
The strain of building up the new institution, in addi- 
tion to exhausting labors for many years, resulted in 
his death at the age of sixty-three. Until the end he 
reasoned earnestly with those he had summoned for 
counsel to his deathbed concerning Hruth, God, man, 
and duty.' 

^ After a most insistent demand on the part of his fellow-citizens, he 
entered Congress to fill out the unexpired term of John Quincy Adams, and 
was twice reelected. 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 263 



Mann's Educational Ideals 

Thus passed a great soul whose influence would have 
been felt in any line of humanitarian endeavor, but whom 
circumstances led to perform his greatest services for 
the common schools. His general positions and specific 
recommendations concerning education may easily be 
gathered from his Lectures , Reports, and Common School 
Journal. A brief interpretative summary may give 
some idea of their purport and range. First and fore- 
most he held that education should be universal and Horace 

Mann be- 
free. *'I believe," he says, "in the existence of a great Uevedina 

immortal, immutable principle of natural law, a prin- and free 
ciple of divine origin, clearly legible in the ways of theSghes^^ 
Providence — the absolute right to an education of °'^*^^^- 
every human being that comes into the world." Girls 
should be trained as well as boys, and the poor should 
have the same opportunities as the rich. Public schools 
should afford education of such a quality that the 
wealthy would not patronize private institutions because 
of their superiority. And as Mann's reforms advanced, 
he took great pride in the fact that "more and more of 
the children of the Commonwealth are educated together 
under the same roof, on the same seats, with the same 
encouragement, rewards, punishments, and to the ex- 
clusion of adventitious and artificial distinctions." 



264 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

This universal education, however, should have as its 
chief aim moral character and social efficiency, and not 
mere erudition, culture, and accomplishments. "No 
amount of intellectual attainments," in Mann's judg- 
ment, ''can afford a guaranty for the moral rectitude of 
the possessor." But while the pubHc school should 
cultivate a moral and religious spirit, this could not be 
accompKshed, he felt, by inculcating sectarian doctrines. 
The main objection urged to the private school system 
in his First Report was its tendency "to assimilate our 
modes of education to those of England, where Church- 
men and Dissenters, each sect according to its creed, 
maintain separate schools in which children are taught 
from their tenderest years to wield the sword of polem- 
ics with fatal dexterity; and where the Gospel, in- 
stead of being a temple of peace, is converted into an 
armory of deadly weapons for social interminable war- 
fare." 



e material 
lipment of 

schools 

lid re- 

e careful 

ation. 



His Improvement of Material Equipment and of 
Methods 

This practical reformer likewise gave much attention 
to the material side of education. He declared that 
school buildings should be well constructed and sanitary. 
This matter seemed to him so important that he wrote 
a special report upon the subject during his first year 
in office. He carefully discussed the proper plans for 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 265 

rooms, ventilation, lighting, seating, and other school- 
house features, and insisted that the inadequate and 
squalid conditions that were existing should be im- 
proved. In his Fourth Report also he considered many 
of the physical evils, especially those arising from pupils 
of all ages being in the same room. He found that in 
many cases this was the result of a multipHcation of 
districts, and suggested union schools or consolidation as 
a remedy. v 

Instruction in the schools, he maintained, should be The methods 
based upon scientific principles, and not authority and Jcientific,^ 
tradition. ''Some teachers," said he, "will teach only ^^^^^^ 
from the books from which they themselves learned, should be 

trained. 

This would create an hereditary descent of books, and 
the line would be immortal." And elsewhere he insists, 
"No one is so poor in resources for difficult emergencies 
as they may arise as he whose knowledge of methods is 
limited to the one by which he happened to be in- 
structed." Pestalozzi's inductive method of teaching He favored 
received his approval, for he felt that the pupils should induct?ve^^ 
be introduced at first-hand to the facts of the humani- °^^thod. 
ties and sciences. The work should be guided by able 
teachers, who had been trained in a normal school, and 
should be imparted in a spirit of mildness and kindness 
through an understanding of child nature. The teachers, 
who should be men as well as women, ought also to 
supplement their training and experience by frequent 



266 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

gathering in associations and institutes for mutual im- 
provement and instruction. 



tudies 
ibe 
cedto 
deal 

s. 



His Emphasis upon Practical Studies 

In the matter of the studies to be pursued, Mann 
was inclined toward the practical, and held that educa- 
tional values and the natural order were often neglected. 
In his Sixth Report he inquires : — 

"Can any satisfactory ground be assigned why algebra, a 
branch which not one man in a thousand ever has occasion to use 
in the business of life, should be studied by more than twenty- 
three hundred pupils, and bookkeeping, which every man, even 
the day laborer, should understand, should be attended to by 
only a Httle more than half that number? Among farmers and 
roadmakers, why should geometry take the precedence of sur- 
veying; and among seekers after intellectual and moral truth, 
why should rhetoric have double the followers of logic?" 

Similarly, he holds that of all subjects, except the 
rudiments, physiology should receive the most atten- 
tion, and he writes an extended essay upon its use and 
value. He exaggerates the importance of this subject, 
possibly as a result of his devotion to phrenology ; ^ 
and in his whole espousal of subjects that will prepare 
for concrete hving, he seems very close to Spencer's test 
of "what knowledge is of the most worth." ^ 



^ See footnote on p. 267. 



* See pp. 27s ff. 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 267 

His Missionary Spirit and Its Achievements 

In order that these various ideals might be reaHzed, Mannwa, 
Mann insisted frequently that the state should spare no education; 
labor or expense. "A patriot," to his mind, '4s known ^^^°4°S; 
by the interest he takes in the common schools." But catio'iai 

•' missionary 

in a republic he felt that "education can never be at- 
tained without the consent of the whole people. Com- 
pulsion, even if it were desirable, is not an available 
instrmnent. Enlightenment, not coercion, is our re- ' 

source. The nature of education must be explainei^." 
Or, as he declares elsewhere, "All improvements in the 
school suppose and require a corresponding and simul- 
taneous improvement in public sentiment." It was 
such an elevation of ideals, effort, and expenditure that 
Horace Mann sought, and for which he began his great 
crusade. He was a man of action, and not a philosopher. 
He had no deep thoughts on the problems of education, 
and not much insight into its nature beyond a dim 
notion gained from phrenology ^ that there were certain 
great 'laws' in man's nature which would furnish a 
plan for education and moral reform. Most of his im- 

* Phrenology was a reputable science in Mann's day. Such persons 
as Gall, Spurzheim, Combe, and, later, O. S. Fowler, show the standing 
of the subject then. Their theory of a localization of brain functions 
is now accepted by psychology in a general way, just as their contention 
that the amount of capacity in a given direction can be determined by 
measuring is generally rejected. 



268 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

pulse was the direct result of his intense moral earnest- 
ness, to which his intellect was always subordinate. 
But it was just this characteristic that was needed to 
achieve the reforms he desired, and it alone accounts 
for the number of practical results accomplished by- 
Mann. 
His achieve- His actual achievements cover a wide range. During 
rema?klbie, ^^^ twclvc ycars of his secretaryship the appropriations 
— he doubled jtj^^^q fQ^ public education in Massachusetts were more 

the appro- ^ 

priationsfor ^^an doubled. Through this rise in enthusiasm for 

public edu- ^ , ^ .— 

cation; he pubHc cducatiou, the proportion of expenditure for 

the number private schools in the state was reduced from seventy- 

the teachers, fivc to thirty-six per cent of the total cost of schools. 

oahrs?hooi '^^^ salaries of masters in the public schools were raised 

year, and the sixty-two per ccut, and, although the number of women 

opportunities j r i i <=> 

for secondary tcachcrs had growu fifty-four per cent, the average of 

education; . t re 

and brought their Salaries was also mcreased fifty-one per cent, 
supervision The school attendance enormously expanded both abso- 
SnaUrdn- lately and relatively to the growth of population, and a 
*°^- full month was added to the average school year. Fifty 

new high schools were established, and the opportuni- 
ties for secondary education, which had been fading for 
half a century, were once more opened. While the 
time for a full appreciation of skilled school superin- 
tendents had not yet arrived, Mann saw the value of 
careful supervision, and greatly increased its efhciency 
by making the compensation of visiting committees 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 269 ^ 

compulsory by law. He founded the first state normal 
schools, and insisted that teachers not only should have 
training and experience, but should constantly strive to 
raise the tone of the profession by attendance at teachers' 
institutes and county associations. Through him the 
idea of public school libraries was started and popu- 
larized. 

Quite as marked was the improvement effected by Heempha- 
Mann in the range and serviceability of the school studies, word method 
in textbooks, methods of teaching, and discipline. While l^^^t tefch- 
not an educational theorist himself, he made practical ^ng and oral 

' ^ instruction, 

and brought into use many of the contributions made rational dis- 

cipline, phys- 

to educational theory by others, and thereby anticipated icai develop- 
ment, and 
many of the features of the so-called 'new' education, other fea- 

Through him was introduced the word method of 'new'educa- 
reading in place of the uneconomical, artificial, and 
ineffective method of the alphabet. He advocated 
object methods and oral instruction. By him govern- 
ment and discipline were placed upon a rational basis. 
The connection between physical and mental health 
and development was often stressed in his writings. 

Effect of His Reforms upon Massachusetts and 
Other States 



tion. 



Thus through Horace Mann the people of Massachu- Through 
setts renewed their faith in the common schools. While schJ)ois^of 
he was assisted by many progressive educators and ^^2^^^^^" 



270 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

setts have tcachcrs of the times and a sympathetic Board of Edu- 

ganized; and cation, it was Under his immediate leadership that a prac- 

Sother^"^^ tically unorganized set of schools, with diverse aims and 

be?n central- ^^^hods, was wcldcd into a well-ordered system with 

ized.andhave high ideals. The Organization of state school adminis- 

caught his 

enthusiasm tration undcr the control of a Board and secretary 

inalldirec- -^ . , ., . . , . 

tions. proved to be so eincient that until 1908 it remained m 

vogue in Massachusetts. Even now the only change is 
in the way of wider powers and centralization and the 
recognition of the responsibility and dignity of the 
executive ofhcer by changing his title to 'state com- 



work was not confined to Massachusetts. Through his 
reports, addresses, journal, and correspondence, the re- 
vival of common schools, which was going on in all 
the neighboring states, was heightened. Following the 
example of Massachusetts, the rest of New England 
began to centralize its educational administration, with 
a state board and secretary, as at first in Connecticut 
and in Maine, or with a single ofiicial known as a 'com- 
missioner,' as in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, or 
'superintendent of schools,' as later in Connecticut and 
in Vermont.^ This organization and the suggestions of 

1 In 1908, after the state committee on the investigation of industrial 
education made its report, it was merged in the State Board, and provision 
was made for the appointment of a ' commissioner ' with enlarged powers. 

2 In this connection we should not forget the marvelous work of Henry 
Barnard (1811-1900), who had a somewhat similar, though longer, 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 271 

Mann proved most effective, and resulted in more sys- 
tematic reports and great improvements in the training 
of teachers, material equipment, courses, textbooks, 
methods, and discipline throughout New England. 
Other states caught the enthusiasm along various lines. 
New York, which had been training its teachers through 
facilities in some of the academies, started a regular 
normal school, greatly improved its supervision, and 
finally separated the state superintendency of schools 
from the office of the secretary of state. Farther west, 
progress was made pari passu with the settlement of 
the country. Early in the secretaryship of Mann, Ohio 
established a state superintendency and an advanced 
set of school laws, and Michigan and other states made 
ample provision for their systems of common schools. 
A regular organization of the state schools, with a 
central authority of some sort, rapidly followed every- 

career as an educator, and greatly supplemented Mann's work. He 
served as Secretary of the Board of School Commissioners in Connec- 
ticut (1838-1842), as School Commissioner of Rhode Island (1843- 
1849), and Superintendent of Schools for Connecticut (i 850-1 854). 
Later (1867-1870) he became the first United States Commissioner of 
Education. He expended a fortune in getting out the volumes of his 
monumental American Journal of Education (1855-1872), which has been 
the greatest mine of information in existence upon educational history, 
theory, and practice. Owing to the overshadowing importance attached 
to the great educational fight made by Mann, whose service for the com- 
mon schools was, after all, comparatively brief, Henry Barnard has re- 
ceived altogether too little recognition. 



272 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

where, and has continued as new states have come into 
existence. 

Thus by the force of example the influence of Horace 
Mann has been felt in all parts of this country. More- 
over, the personality of Mann and the improvements 
resulting from his work were recognized even in several 
states of Europe. Many articles and books upon this 
great educational statesman have been published by 
Enghsh, French, and Italian educators. His services 
have produced an effect both fundamental and wide- 
spread. They have proved a stimulus to foreign lands, 
and upon the United States they have made a lasting 
impression. 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING^ 

I. Sources 

*Mann, H. Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Massachusetts 
Board of Education (1838-1849), Common School Journal, and 
Lectures on Education. 
Mann, Mary. Lectures and Annual Reports on Education of 
Horace Mann (Vol. II of Atkinson's Xi/e and Works of Horace 
Mann). 

11. Authorities 
// Atkinson, W. P. Life and Works of Horace Mann. Five volumes. 
Barnard, H. American Journal of Education. Vol. V, pp. 611- 

645- 
1 A more complete bibliography by B. Pickman Mann can be found in 
the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1895-1896, 
Vol. I, pp. 897-927. 



MANN AND THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL 273 

BowEN, F. Mr. Mann and the Teachers of the Boston Schools 
{North American Review, Vol. LX, pp. 224-246). 

Combe, G. Education in America: State oj Massachusetts {Edin- 
burgh Review, Vol. LXXIII, pp. 486-502). 

*Harris, W. T, Horace Mann {Educational Review, Vol. XII, 
pp. 105-119). 

*HiNSDALE, B. A. Horace Mann and the Common School Revival 
in the United States. 
-4IuBBELL, G. A. Horace Mann; Educator, Patriot, and Reformer. 

Kasson, F. H. Horace Mann {Education, Vol. XII, pp. 36-43). 
^Lang, O. H. Horace Mann, his Life and Work. 

Mann, Mary. Life of Horace Mann. 

Martin, G. H. Horace Mann and the Revival of Education in 
Massachusetts {Educational Review, Vol. V, pp. 434-450). 

Martin, G. H. The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School 
System. Led. IV. 

*Mayo, a. D. Horace Mann and the Great Revival of the American 
Common School, 1830-1850 {Report of the United States Com- 
missioner of Education, 1896-1897, Vol. I, pp. 715-767). 

*Parker, F. W. Horace Mann {Educational Review, Vol. XII, 
pp. 65-74). 
^ *WiNSHiP, A. E. Horace Mann the Educator, 



CHAPTER XIV 



The natural 
sciences were 
greatly de- 
veloped in 
education 
during the 
latter half of 
the nine- 
teenth cen- 
tury, and 
the changed 
attitude 
was crystal- 
lized by 
Herbert 
Spencer. 



HERBERT SPENCER AND THE RELATIVE VALUE 
OF STUDIES 

The latter half of the nineteenth century witnessed a 
great development in the natural sciences and in the part 
they should play in the curricula of various educational 
institutions. At the beginning of this period, Greek and 
Latin had everywhere an almost unbroken monopoly 
in secondary and higher education, and stubbornly re- 
sisted the admission of any training in science; while, 
by the close of the century, not only was the power of the 
classical fetish greatly diminished, but a constant struggle 
and a complete revision of methods to maintain these 
subjects at all had become necessary. This general 
change of attitude grew largely out of the material 
development of the times, the increasing popularity of 
evolutionary doctrine, and the work of the educational 
reformers that had preceded. But while it was in the 
spirit of the times, it jvas first crystallized and defended 
by the English philosopher, Spencer. 

Spencer's Education and Other Writings 

Spencer was Herbert spencer (1820-1903) was the descendant of 
intellectual educators, and during all his youth was surrounded by 

274 



SPENCER AND RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 275 
intellectual and literary traditions. He never went to traditions, 

1 . . ., T r 1 Til 3,nd early 

the university, possibly on account of the poor health showed an 
from which he suffered all his life, but he engaged in a sdence."^ 
wide range of miscellaneous studies at home. He began 
early to read on natural science and mathematics, per- 
form experiments and make inventions, and show remark- 
able ability in working out original problems. In his 
young manhood he wrote on economic and social sub- 
jects with great force and clearness. By the time he was 
thirty he had produced his Social Statics, in which he 
treats the evolution of society through natural laws, and 
during the next quarter of a century he devoted himself 
to a systematic development of his ideas. He elaborated 
and applied the laws of evolution to important questions 
in biology, psychology, ethics, politics, and sociology, 
and issued a monumental series of works. During his 
thirties he also worked out his ideas on education with 
much enthusiasm. His treatises were originally con- At forty he 

, n 1 published 

tnbutions to magazines, but m i860 they were collected his treatise 
and published in book form as Education, Intellectual, tion. 
Moral, and Physical. 

"What Knowledge Is of the Most Worth?" 

Spencer did not read widely upon educational subjects, 
and his conceptions are largely his own, but in his Edu- 
cation he has apparently been affected by the atmosphere 
of the times, and has combined with his principles some 



276 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



The first 
essay in this 
book is of 
most im- 
portance. 



Here he ar- 
gues that to 
decide What 
Knowledge Is 
of Most 
Worth, 
'preparation 
for complete 
living' must 
be taken as a 
standard. 



He then 
classifies the 
leading 
activities in 
Ufe, 



of the ideas previously expressed by Rousseau, Pestalozzi, 
and Herbart. Of the four essays in the book, the first 
has been by far the most influential, and called forth the 
greatest amount of comment. This part of the work, 
which seeks to investigate What Knowledge Is of Most 
Worth, raises the whole question of the purpose of educa- 
tion, and is completely subversive of the old classical 
traditions. Spencer's argument runs as follows : ^ — 

"In order of time decoration precedes dress. And in our 
universities and schools at the present moment the like antithesis 
holds. As the Orinoco Indian puts on his paint before leaving 
his hut, not with a view to any direct benefit, but because he 
would be ashamed to be seen without it; so a boy's drilHng in 
Latin and Greek is insisted on, not because of their intrinsic 
value, but that he may not be disgraced by being found ignorant 
of them. The comparative worths of different kinds of knowl- 
edge have been as yet scarcely even discussed — much less dis- 
cussed in a methodic way with definite results. Before there 
can be a rational curriculum, we must decide which things it 
most concerns us to know. To this end, a measure of value is 
the first requisite. How to live ? — that is the essential question for 
us. Not how to live in the mere material sense only, but in the 
widest sense. To prepare us for complete living is the function 
which education has to discharge ; and the only rational mode of 
judging of any educational course is, to judge in what degree it 
discharges such function. Our first step must obviously be to 
classify, in the order of their importance, the leading kinds of 
activity which constitute human life. They may be arranged 
into: I. Those activities which directly minister to self-preserva- 

1 In the quotation everything not essential to the argument is omitted. 



SPENCER AND RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 277 

tion; 2. Those activities which, by securing the necessaries of 
life, indirectly minister to self-preservation; 3. Those activities 
which have for their end the rearing and discipline of offspring; 
4. Those activities which are involved in the maintenance of 
proper social and political relations; 5. Those miscellaneous 
activities which make up the leisure part of life, devoted to the 
gratification of the tastes and feeHngs. We do not mean that 
these divisions are definitely separable. We do not deny that 
they are intrinsically entangled with each other in such way 
that there can be no training for any that is not in some measure 
a training for all. Nor do we question that of each division 
there are portions more important than certain portions of the 
preceding divisions. But after making all qualifications, there 
still remain these broadly marked divisions; and these divisions 
subordinate one another in the foregoing order. The ideal of 
education is complete preparation in all these divisions. But 
faiHng this ideal, as in our phase of civilization every one must 
do more or less, the aim should be to maintain a due proportion 
between the degrees of preparation, in each, greatest where the 
value is greatest, less where the value is less, least where the value 
is least." 

The 'Sciences' Most Useful in All Life Activities 

Applying this test, Spencer finds that a knowledge of and holds 

that a knowl- 

the sciences is always most useful in life, and therefore of edge of the 

most worth. He considers each one of the five groups mostvaiu- 

of activities and demonstrates the need of the knowledge ratfonTOT^' 

of some science or sciences to guide it rightly. An ac- ^^^' 
quaintance with physiology is necessary to the mainte- 
nance of health, and so for self-preservation ; any form 
of industry or other means of indirect self-preservation 



278 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



Besides the 
'content' 
value, he also 
maintains 
that, on the 
side of 'dis- 
cipline,' sci- 
ence trains 
the memory, 
judgment, 
and morals. 



will require some understanding of mathematics, physics, 
chemistry, biology, and sociology ; to care for the physi- 
cal, intellectual, and moral training of their children, 
parents should know the general principles of physiology, 
psychology, and ethics ; a man is best fitted for citizen- 
ship through a knowledge of the science of history in its 
political, economic, and social aspects; and even the 
aesthetic or leisure side of life depends upon physiology, 
mechanics, and psychology as a basis for art, music, and 
poetry, and "science opens up realms of poetry where to 
the unscientific all is a blank." ^ 

This argument for the sciences on the ground that their 
'content' is so much superior for the activities of life 
would seem to be sufficient. But Spencer now shifts his 
whole point of view, and attempts to anticipate the de- 
fense of the classics on the score of ^formal discipline' 
by meeting them on their own ground. He admits that 
"besides its use for guidance in conduct, the acquisition 
of each order of facts has also its use as mental exercise, 
and its effects as a preparative for complete living have 
to be considered under both these heads." But he holds 
that by "the beautiful economy of Nature those classes 
of facts which are most useful for regulating conduct are 
best for strengthening the mental faculties, and the edu- 



1 Spencer even undertakes to show that a systematic knowledge of 
facts and the laws of science in the physical and psychological worlds is 
essential to the best aesthetic production and enjoyment. 



SPENCER AND RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 279 

cation of most value for guidance must at the same time 
be the education of most value for discipline.'' As evi- 
dence of this, he undertakes to show that science, like 
language, trains the memory, and in addition exercises 
the understanding; that it is superior to language in 
cultivating judgment; that, by fostering independence, 
perseverance, and sincerity, it furnishes a moral disci- 
pline; and even that science, "inasmuch as it generates a 
profound respect for, and an implicit faith in, those uni- 
form laws which underlie all things," is the best disci- 
pline for religious culture. Hence, from the point of 
view of formal discipline and mental gymnastics, as well 
as of content and guidance, Spencer declares science, 
rather than language and literature, to be of most worth 
in education. 

These educational conclusions of Spencer seem to in- Spencer is 

1 r T -r» • 11 ^^"^ opposed 

volve a complete reversal of the Renaissance, and they to the ciassi- 

certainly called for a loosening of the traditional hold of oftheRenais- 

the classics upon England. Instead of Greek and Latin doesno^t^iike 

for 'culture' and discipline,' and an order of society Rousseau, 

where the few were educated for a life of elegant leisure, value of all 

knowledge 

this English philosopher advocated the 'sciences' and a that comes 
new scheme of life where every one should enjoy all the past. 
advantages in the order of their relative value. We 
should, however, note the fallacy in his use of the word 
'science.' With Spencer this term denotes the social, 
political, and moral sciences, as well as the physical and 



28o GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 



biological, and he really includes much that would 
properly come under the head of ^humanities' rather 
than 'science.' He is, however, fairly consistent in 
desiring material in the curriculum that will be of more 
service than the classics. While such a complete de- 
struction of educational traditions strongly suggests 
Rousseau, Spencer's Education at least brought Rous- 
seau's doctrine down to earth. It seems more like a 
reversion to Bacon and Locke, from whom the Swiss- 
French reformer probably got his start, and a return to 
England by way of the continent of the old revolu- 
tionary doctrines. It clearly cannot be considered 
Rousselian to the extent of denying the value of all 
knowledge that comes down from the past. His com- 
plaint lies rather against the monopoly of the tradi- 
tional subjects and methods. "The attitude of the uni- 
versities toward natural science," he protests elsewhere,^ 
"has been that of contemptuous non-recognition. Col- 
legiate authorities have long resisted, either actively or 
passively, the making of physiology, chemistry, geology, 
etc., subjects of examination." 

Hence, Spencer cannot with propriety be stigmatized 
for his 'utilitarianism,' as has so frequently been done. 
His 'preparation for complete living' includes more than 
merely making a living and the material side of hfe, and 
the 'utilitarianism' with which he is charged contains 
^ Social Statics, p. 375. 



SPENCER AND RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 281 

the same underlying principle and may be equated with 
the 'practical' of Kant or the 'aesthetic' of Herbart. 
The 'science' with which he would replace the tradi- 
tional humanistic studies contributes to moral values. 
It should elevate conduct, and make life pleasanter, 
nobler, and more effective. 

His argmnent for the superiority of the sciences in Hisargu- 
disciplinary value, however, is unfortunate. There was ^^ciphLaiy' 
no need of his accepting that point of view at all ; and, in sden^ces il^^ 
doing so, he shows that he is not altogether emancipated however, 
from tradition, and that he has not fully grasped the dis- and 

. ,. , . r^ I'll! .1 his 'economy 

ciplmary claims of language, which he bases entirely upon of nature' 
memory training. He likewise begs the question in quStion. 
stating that nature is bound, as a matter of economy, to 
make the training that is best for guidance also the best 
for discipline. As a matter of fact, nothing is more un- 
economical than nature, which always produces a super- 
abundance, on the principle that much will necessarily 
be wasted. 

Essays upon * Intellectual,' * Moral,' and * Physical 
Education ' 

The second essay in Spencer's work is entitled Intel- in his intei- 

77-17 • 7111 .,,.., lectual Edu- 

lectual Education, and deals largely with his ideas on cation 
method. In the first place, he insists, with Pestalozzi, la^gefy'^foi- 
"that education must conform to the natural process of JoJ^rfprin- 
evolution." He criticizes the methods of the time, and ^p^^^J 



r 



282 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 

undertakes to state his guiding principles in logical order 
as follows : " i. In education we should proceed from the 
simple to the complex. 2. Our lessons ought to start 
from the concrete and end in the abstract. 3. The edu- 
cation of the child must accord both iii mode and 
arrangement with the education of man considered his- 
torically. 4. In each branch of instruction we should 
proceed from the empirical to the rational. 5. The 
process of self-development should be encouraged to the 
fullest extent. 6. There is always a method productive 
of interest, and this is the method proved by all other 
tests to be the right one." These principles, which he 
exemplifies by applying them to various studies, are 
strikingly similar to some already formulated by Pesta- 
lozzi, Herbart, and Froebel. 
in his Mora/ No greater originality is displayed in his essays upon 
holds to Moral Education and Physical Education. In moral 
PMdshment training, he criticizes the existing control by impulse, 
by 'natural tradition, and harshness, and insists upon inhibition, 
quences'; rcprcssion, and elimination of the natural 'evil impulses' ^ 

and in his 

Physical as the 'guidiug principle of moral education.' But 

Education he , ., , , . i •!-» i i m i • 

gives prac- whilc he docs uot agree with Rousseau that the child is 

a VIC . ^^ nature good,^ he does indorse that writer's principle 

of punishing through 'natural consequences.' ^ In the 

1 In fact, despite his rejection of the old 'natural depravity' theory of 
the theologians, he holds, like Locke, a most unfavorable view of child- 
nature, and declares that "as the child's features resemble those of the 
savage, so, too, do his instincts." ^ See p. 89. 



SPENCER AND RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 283 

matter of physical training, he holds that the first req- 
uisite to success in life is to be a good animal. He insists 
upon the preservation of health as a duty, and discusses 
most sensibly the proper food, clothing, exercise, and play 
for the boy and girl. Excessive study, he declares, should 
be avoided as fatal to happiness, and he would make but 
little use of set exercise, on the ground that it is artificial. 

Influence of Spencer 

Obviously, except for his definition of the aim of edu- spencerthus 

cation and his test of the relative value of studies, there is Jh°e^reiative 

Httle that is really original in Spencer. Yet his way of l^h^^^ j 

combining Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and other reformers made a sen- 
sible combi- 
was new, and gave a basis of solidity, practicality, and nation of the 

theoretical 

common sense to these educators. Herbert Spencer was reformers. 
probably one of the greatest minds the world has ever on^ijTEngii^sh 
known. He was without question the one great English fst to^make" 
philosopher of the nineteenth century and the only educa- °^"^^ ^^' 

^ ^ -^ •' pression on 

tional writer of that country to make much impression the nine- 
teenth cen- 
upon the times. His treatise has been translated into tury. 

thirteen languages and has influenced all parts of the 

civilized world. It has ever since given the sciences a 

standing that has assured them of complete recognition 

in the curriculum, and it is one of the most important 

works ever written in English. 



284 GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES 
SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

I. Source 
*Spencer, H. Education; Intellectual ^ Moral, and Physical, 

II. Authorities 

*C0MPAYRE, G. History of Pedagogy. Pp. 538-556. 

Compayre, G. Herbert Spencer and Scientific Education. 

Duncan, D. Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer. 

Gaupp, 0. Herbert Spencer. 

*Harris, W. T. Herbert Spencer and What to Study {Educational 

Review, Vol. XXIV, pp. 135-149). 
Laurie, S. S. Herbert Spencer's Chapter on Moral Education 

{Educational Review, Vol. IV, pp. 485-491). 
*Laurie, S. S. Educational Opinion from the Renaissance. Chap. 

XVI. 
Leitch, J. Practical Educationalists and their Systems. 
*QuiCK, R. H. Essays on Educational Reformers. Chap. XIX. 
RoYCE, J. Herbert Spencer; an Estimate and a Review. 



INDEX 



A B C of Observation, 129 (footnote), 
133, 135, 155- 

'Absorption,' 182 f. 

Academy, of Milton, 6; in England, 
6; in United States, 7; of Come- 
nius, 38, 43. 

Adamson, quoted, 73. 

Agricultural Institute, 138. 

Aim of education, of Milton, 5; of 
Comenius, 36; of Locke, 53, 59; of 
Francke, 71 ; of Rousseau, in Emile's 
infancy, 88; childhood, 89; boy- 
hood, 91 ; youth, 93 ; for women, 
96; in Basedow, 117; in Pestalozzi, 
144 fi.; in Herbart, 170, 175 2.; in 
Froebel, 200, 208 f., 226; in Lan- 
caster, 237; in Mann, 264; in Spen- 
cer, 276 ff. 

Alcott, Bronson, 162. 

Alsted, Johann Heinrich, 33. 

Andreas, 33- 

Anhalt-Kothen, 21. 

Annual Reports, of Mann, 255 f. 

Antioch College, 262. 

'Apperception,' 174, 183. 

Apperception, of Lange, 189. 

Aristotle, 12, 13, 18. 

Armenschule, 69. 

Association for the Scientific Study of 
Education, 188. 

Atrium, 30. 

Auciarium, 31 (footnote). 

Augsburg, 21. 

Bacon, Francis, 11 £f. ; compared to 
Ratich, 24; influence on Comenius, 
33, 48; on Spencer, 280. 

Barnard, Henry, 261 (footnote); 270 
(footnote). 

Barop, 202 (footnote). 



Barraud, 159, 

Basedow, 50, 100, 109, 112. 

Basis of the Doctrine of Educative In- 
struction, 188. 

Bateus, 29, 32. 

Behrisch, 115. 

Bell, Andrew, 239 ff. 

Biber, 160. 

Bible, 262. 

Blankenburg, 204, 205, 216. 

Blochmann, 157. 

Blow, Susan, 231, 232. 

Bodinus, 33. 

Bolte, 231. 

Bonnal, 126. 

Book for Mothers, 132 (footnote), 135. 

Boston schoolmasters, 163, 260 f. 

Brief and Simple Treatise on Christian 
Education, 71. 

British and Foreign Society, 239. 

Brooks, Rev. Charles, 162. 

Biirgerschvile, 69. 

Burgdorf, 131, 203. 

Buss, 134, 140. 

Campe, 93, 115, 116, 120. 

Carpenter, Mary, 164. 

Carter, James G., 253, 257 (footnote), 

261 (footnote). 
Chavannes, 159, 162. 
'Ciceronianism,' 2. 
Clinton, De Witt, quoted, 246. 
Colbum, Warren, 162. 
College of Pansophy, 35. 
* Collegia pietatis,' 67. 
Combe, 252. 

Comenius, 16, 25, 27 ff., 118. 
Common School Journal, 255. 
'Concentration,' 180, 192. 
Conduct of the Understanding, 52. 



28s 



INDEX 



Confessions, of Rousseau, 77 (footnote). 

Congress of Philosophers, 228. 

'Connection of contrasts,' 223. 

Constitution of Man, 252. 

Copernicus, 11, 

'Correlation,' 180, 191. 

Cousin, Victor, 159, 162. 

'Creativeness,' 215, 216, 226. 

'Culture epoch' theory, 210. 

Curriculum, of Milton, 4, s ; of Bacon, 
16; of Ratich, 22; of Comenius, 40 
fi. ; of Locke, 54 fE. ; of Francke, 72 ; 
of Rousseau, 91, 96; of Basedow, 
117; of Pestalozzi, 124 fiF., 128 f., 
148; of Herbart, 180 f.; of Froebel, 
216, 221 ; of Lancaster and Bell, 
240 f.; of Mann, 266; of Spencer, 
277 ff. 

'Dancing master education,' 85, 113 
(footnote). 

De Garmo, Charles, 190. 

Denzel, 157. 

Descartes, 11, 65. 

Dessau, 115. 

Didaclica Magna, 32 fif. 

Discipline, of Ratich, 24 ; of Comenius, 
47; of Locke, 57; of Francke, 73; 
of Rousseau, 89, 94; of Basedow, 
116; of Pestalozzi, 149 ; of Herbart, 
184; of Froebel, 221; of Lancaster 
and Bell, 241 ; of Mann, 265 ; of 
Spencer, 282. 

Discipline, 'formal,' 58 ff., 278 f. 

Dorothea, Duchess of Weimar, 21. 

Dress of children, in time of Rousseau, 
8; of Basedow, 113; in Philanthro- 
pinum, 117. 

D wight, Edmund, 257 (footnote). 

Education, defined by Milton, 5. 
Education, Spencer's, 275. 
Elbing, 30. 

Elementarwerk, 114, 117. 
Elementary, or 'vernacular' school, 38. 
Emile, 84 flE., 123, 124. 
Encyclopedia of Pedagogics, 187. 
Essay concerning the Human Understand- 
ing, 52, 58. 



Evening Hour of a Hermit, 125, 144. 
Experiment in Education, 239. 

Father^ s Journal, 124. 

Fellenberg, 136 fif. 

Fichte, 156, 168, 196, 207. 

Foreign travel, in Milton, 2, 5 ; in Co- 
menius, 38 ; in Locke, 54. 

'Formal discipline,' 58 &., 278 £E. 

'Formal steps of instruction,' 183, 189. 

Forth ildungsschulen, 158. 

Francke, 49, 68. 

Franckesche Stiftungen, 73, 189. 

Frankland, Richard, 7. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 8, 250. 

Freitisch, 70. 

Frey, 33. 

Frick, Otto, 189. 

Friedrich Franz, Prince, 115. 

Friedrich Wilhelm III, 157. 

Froebel, 25, 50, 120; compared to Her- 
bart, 167, 194 £E.; compared to Pes- 
talozzi, 225. 

Froebel Union, 229, 232. 

Galileo, 11. 

General Pedagogy, 170. 

Gessner, 135. 

'Gifts,' 204, 218, 219, 220. 

Goethe, 196. 

Gould, Judge, 250 (footnote). 

'Grammar' schools, in England, 7; 

in United States, 8. 
Grammaticce Facilioris Pracepta, 28. 
Greaves, 160. 
Griscom, John, 162. 
Griiner, 156, 197. 
Guericke, 11. 
Guizot, 159. 
Guyot, 162. 

Hall, Samuel R., .257. 

'Hardening process,' 62. 

'Harmonization of opposites,' 223. 

Harris, W. T., ^32. 

Herbart, 25, 50, 120, 167 fi.; compared 

to Froebel, 167, 186, 194; compared 

to Pestalozzi, 185. 
I Hill, S. H., 231. 



INDEX 



287 



Hohere Tochterschule, 70. 

Hofwyl, 137. 

Home and Colonial Society, 160, 163. 

How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, 135, 

147. 
'Humanistic realism,' 2, 10, 52. 

Idealism, German, 206. 

'Ideas,' of Herbart, 173 f. 

'Idols,' of Bacon, 13. 

Improvements in Education, 238. 

Induction, 11, 45 f. 

Industrial education, 107, 125, 137 f., 

152 f., 155, 158, 160, 164 f. 
Informatorium Skoly Mater ske, 33. 
'Innovators,' 2. 

Jackman, Wilbur S., 191. 
Jacobins, 105. 

Janua Linguarum, 29, 34, 49. 
Jullien, 158, 162. 

Kant, 114, 119, 171 f. 

Keilhau, 2cx>, 221. 

Kepler, 11. 

Kindergarten, 42, 50, 203 f., 204 (foot- 
note), 216 fi.; in France, 228; in 
Belgiimi, 228; in Holland, 228; in 
England, 228; in Italy, 228; in 
Germany, 229 £.; in United States, 
230 ff. 

Klepper, Henriette, 207. 

Kohl, Robert, 223 (footnote). 

Kraus-Bolte, Mrs. Maria, 231. 

Krause, 203. 

Kriisi, 132, 134, 135 (footnote), 140, 
ISO, 155- 

Lancaster, 237 ff. 
Lange, Karl, 189. 
Langethal, 199, 207. 
'Latin school,' 38, 42 f. 
Leonard and Gertrude, 126. 
Leszno, 28, 35. 

Letters, of Rousseau, 77 (footnote). 
Letter to Duke of Meiningen, 202 (foot- 
note). 
Letter to Krause, 202 (footnote). 
Levin, Luise, 205 (footnote). 



Locke, II, 52 ff. ; influenced by Mon- 
taigne, S3 f. ; by Bacon, 55; by 
Ratich, 55; by Comenius, 55 f., 
118; influence on Spencer, 280, 282 
(footnote). 

Ludwig, Prince, 21. 

Luise, Queen, 157. 

McClure, William, 161. 

McMurry, Charles A., 190. 

McMurry, Frank M., 190. 

Magdeburg, 21. 

Mann, Horace, 163, 249 £f. 

'Many-sided interest,' 178 Q. 

Marienthal, 206. 

Marwedel, Emma, 232. 

Mason, Lowell, 162. 

Massachusetts school organization, 270. 

Matthison, the poet, 116. 

Mayo, Dr., 160, 163. 

Methodenbuch, 114. 

'Method of natiire,' 44 f. 

Methods, of Ratich, 23; of Comenius, 
46 f . ; of Locke, 56 ; of Francke, 73 ; 
of Rousseau, 91 f. ; of Basedow, 116 
ff. ; of Pestalozzi, 127 ff., 139 ff., 147 
ff. ; of Fellenberg, 138 ; of Herbart, 
182; of Froebel, 200, 212, 216 ff.; 
of Lancaster and Bell, 240 ff.; of 
Mann, 269; of Spencer, 282. 

Methodus Linguarum Novissima, 30 
(footnote). 

Michigan school system, 271. 

Middendorf, 199, 207, 227. 

Milton, I ff. 

'Monitorial' system, 237 ff.; used in 
Hindu education, 239; of the 
Jesuits, 240, favored by Comenius, 
240; influence in United States, 

243 ff- 
Monnard, quoted, 131. 
Montaigne, 5, 53, 54, 118. 
Moravian Brethren, 27. 
Morf, 135. 
Morton, Charles, 7. 

Mother and Play Songs, 204, 217, 222 f, 
'Mother school,' 34, 38, 41. 
Miiller, 157. 
Munchenbuchsee, 137. 



288 



INDEX 



Naef, Conrad, 139. 

Nageli, 142, 162, 

National Education Association, 191. 

National Society for Promoting the 

Education of the Poor, 239. 
National Society for the Scientific 

Study of Education, 191. 
'Natural consequences,' 89, 282. 
Neef, Joseph, 161. 
Neuhof, 124, 144. 
New Atlantis, 15. 
New Heloise, 84. 
Nicolovius, 156. 
Niederer, 134, 143, 150. 
Normal school, 164, 257 £. 
Novalis, 196. 
Novum Organum, 12 ff. 

'Occupations,' 204, 218 ff. 

Odyssey, 181. 

Ohio school system, 271. 

On Pestalozzi's Latest Writing, 'How 

Gertrude Teaches Her Children,' 169. 
On the Moral Revelation of the World, 

170, 
On the Point of View in Judging the 

Pestalozzian Method of Instruction, 

170. 
Orhis Sensualium Pictus, 31, 34, 49, 114. 
'Oswego methods,' 163. 
Outlines of General Pedagogy, 172. 
Outlines of Pedagogical Lectures, 172. 
Outlines of Pedagogy, 189. 

Padagogium, 70, 72, 75. 

Page, David P., 162. 

Pansophia, 16, 34, 40 ff. 

Pansophicce Scholce Delineatio, 35. 

Parker, Francis W., 191. 

Patak, 30 f., 35. 

Pauline, Princess, 157. 

Payne, Joseph, 230 (footnote). 

Peabody, Elizabeth P., 230 f. 

Pestalozzi, 50, 120, 122 ff., 169, 265, 
276, 281, 283; compared to Herbart, 
185. 

Pestalozzi's Idea of an A B C of Obser- 
vation, 169. 

Philanthropinum, 109, 115 f., 120. 



Pierce, Cyrus, 258 (footnote). 
Pietism, 68, 75. 
Pietists, 68. 
Plamann, 156, 199. 
'Play songs,' 204. 
Prerau, 28. 

Prussian system of education, 155, 163, 
260. 

Ratich, 16, 20 ff. ; influence on Come- 

nius, 29, 32, 48; on Francke, 68, 

118. 
Rawley, Dr., 12. 
Realgymnasium, 74. 
Realism, 'humanistic,' 2; 'social,' 3; 

'sense,' 3, 10, 52, 55. 
Realschule, 70, 72, 75. 
Reflection, 182 f. 
Rein, Wilhelm, 189. 
Reveries, Rousseau's, 77 (footnote). 
Ritter, 142. 
Robinson Crusoe, 93. 
Rousseau, 77 ff., 276, 280, 282, 283 ; 

influence on Basedow, 112, 113; on 

Pestalozzi, 146, 149. 
Royal Lancasterian Institution, 238. 

'Salomon's House,' 15. 

Salzmann, 115 f., 120. 

Sapientice Palatium, 31. 

Saros-Patak, 31. 

Savoyard Vicar, 95 (footnote). 

Schelling, 168, 196. 

Schiller, 196. 

Schlegel, 196. 

Schmid, Joseph, 132 (footnote), 140, 

143, 150. 
Schnyder, of Frankfurt, 202 (footnote). 
Schola Latina, 70, 72, 75. 
Schola Ludus, 31. 
School libraries, 237. 
School of Infancy, 34 (footnote), 203. 
Schools of the eighteenth century, 151. 
Secondary, or 'Latin' school, 38, 42 f. 
'Self-activity,' 212 ff., 226. 
Seminarium Praeceptorum, 70, 75. 
Seminary, Herbart's, 171. 
Shaw, Mrs. Quincy, 231. 
Sheldon, Edward A., 163. 



INDEX 



289 



Social Contract, 84 f,, 103, 123. 

Sophie, 96. 

Spencer, 274 ff.; influenced by Rous- 
seau, 276, 280. 

Spener, 67, 

Stages of education, in Rousseau, 102 ; 
in Froebel, 210. 

Stanz, 128 fE. 

Stoy, Karl Volkmar, 187. 

Silvern, 156. 

Swiss Family Robinson, 93, 115. 

'Syllabaries,' 129, 131. 

Symbolism, of Froebel, 224. 

'Table of fractions,' 139. 

'Table of units,' 132. 

'Tabula rasa,' 59, 65. 

Teachers' institutes, 254. 

Thoughts concerning Education, 7, 52. 

Tieck, 196. 

Tobler, 134, 142. 

Tochterschule, 70, 73. 

Tractate of Education, 13. 

'Transition classes,' 222. 

'Universal College,' 40. 
Universal education, 146, 263. 



Universal German Institute of Edu- 
cation, 199, 201. 
University, or 'academy,' 38, 43. 

'Vernacular' school, 38, 42. 

Vestibulum, 30. 

Vives, 32. 

Von Bulow, Baroness, 205, 227 £., 

231. 
Von Steiger, 168. 
Von Turck, 156. 

Waisenanstalt, 69. 

Weiss, Professor, 198 f., 207. 

'What Knowledge Is of Most Worth/ 

276. 
Willisau, 202. 
Wolke, 116, 120. 
Woodbridge, William C, 164. 
Woodhouse, John, 7. 

Year Book, of the Herbartians, 190. 
Yverdun, 138 f., 143, 197. 

Zeh, Dr., 201 (footnote). 
Zeller, of Wurtemberg, 154, 156. 
Ziller, Tuiskon, 183, 187 fi. 



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